Barbara Crane was born in Chicago, USA. She studied art history at Mills College (1945-48), completing her BA at New York University in 1950. Crane did professional portrait photography in New York in the late 1940s until moving back to Chicago in 1952. In 1960 she returned to portrait photography when her youngest child entered pre-school and continued until 1964, when she enrolled in the Institute of Design photography department and began teaching. Crane works in many formats and with a range of materials, exploring sequential imagery, intimate platinum prints to large Polaroids, silver gelatin prints and precise digital imagery. Her exhibitions include six retrospective shows, more than 75 sole exhibitions and more than 200 group exhibitions. Crane is currently a Professor Emeritus in Photography at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.