Even at the age of 90, Barbara Crane's eyes sparkle with joy when she browses a thick binder filled with 8-by-10 black-and-white photographs.

She took hundreds of photos during a pioneering trip to China in 1985. China's reform and opening had started several years prior in 1978. Crane became one of the first American photographers permitted to take pictures freely around the country. She became a "cultural emissary" thanks to an exchange arrangement between China and the US.