Barbara Probst was born in 1964 in Munich, Germany, and studied at the Akademie der Bildende Künste, Munich, and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. She has exhibited widely in Europe and the US. Her work was shown in New Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2006. She has had solo exhibitions at CentrePasquArt, Biel, Switzerland; Domaine de Kerguehennec, Bignan, France; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen; Stills Gallery, Edinburgh; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, Wisconsin; Oldenburg Kunstverein, Germany; and the Rudolfinum, Prague.

Her work is represented in numerous public collections, including Folkwang Museum, Essen; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Barbara Probst lives and works in New York and Munich.