Published on the occasion of the first major retrospective of the American photographer Barbara Crane (1928-2019) at the Centre Pompidou, in Paris, this publication offers an opportunity to rediscover a major work of art spanning more than sixty years. This monograph, essentially devoted to photographs from the first twenty-five years of her career, presents both major series and several previously unpublished ones.
A product of the Chicago School and its formalist approach, Barbara Crane has explored the medium's range of possibilities in a singular, protean language. Oscillating between documentary approaches and more experimental research, sometimes bordering on abstraction, manipulating all media and hybridizing techniques, Crane has never ceased to question photography.

Comprising fourteen series that illustrate Crane's approach, the visual corpus is accompanied by critical texts by the exhibition's curator, Julie Jones; Françoise Paviot, who has long represented the artist in France; photographer and former student of Barbara Crane, Philippe De Jonckheere; and an interview with the artist conducted in 2019 by gallery owner and photography historian, Agathe Cancellieri. All place her work in the artistic context of the time and in the history of the medium, testifying to the insatiable exploratory approach and generous personality of this major photographer.