Barbara Van Cleve

Barbara Van Cleve developed an interest in photography at her family’s ranch on the east slopes of the Crazy Mountains near Melville, Montana. At eleven years old, her parents gave her a Brownie, a basic box camera, and a home-developing kit, which transformed her childlike interest in photography into a lifelong commitment. Van Cleve taught English literature and photography in the Chicago area for more than twenty-five winters. During the summers, she returned to her family’s ranch working and photographing the “true grit” of her experiences there and at other ranches in the American West.