{"id":6954,"date":"2022-10-25T20:15:06","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T20:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/liberatinglens\/?page_id=6954"},"modified":"2022-12-11T18:55:03","modified_gmt":"2022-12-11T18:55:03","slug":"frieberg-jenna","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/liberatinglens\/frieberg-jenna\/","title":{"rendered":"Frieberg, Jenna"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thesis & Background<\/h2>\n
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Girl Culture<\/em> (2002) by Lauren Greenfield<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For my portfolio, I am focusing on Lauren Greenfield\u2019s Girl Culture. <\/em>The book features the experiences of youth culture and coming of age in a climate of growing media pressures. Lauren Greenfield is an American photographer known for her groundbreaking captures of youth culture, gender, wealth, and consumerism. She was born in 1966 in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in Los Angeles, California, where she felt the rising influence of Hollywood celebrity culture and materialism. Since starting her career as an intern for National Geographic after graduating from Harvard in 1987, Greenfield has grown to become a quintessential photographer and filmmaker of the modern world. In fact, she was named one of the 2015 Top 10 directors in Adweek\u2019s Most Creative 100 People and by American Photo<\/a> as one of the 25 most influential photographers working today. Her work can be found in a number of art collections and museums, from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to the International Center of Photography. Girl Culture<\/em> particularly, released in 2002, won accolades for its “strikingly honest look at girls and young women across America”<\/a> (Orr).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raised in a Jewish neighborhood and by Jewish parents who instilled distinct values, Jewish identity became intrinsic to Greenfield\u2019s art form. In an interview with Moment Magazine, Greenfield explores the Jewish perspective as a \u201cconflict between assimilation and feeling like the outsider\u201d<\/a> that applies to her photography in both a critical and sociological sense. Her unique standpoint has enabled her to access \u201cinside worlds,\u201d whether it\u2019s \u201cmedia or wealth or celebrity.\u201d In Girl Culture<\/em>, these themes are most definitely reflected, yet through the framework of malleable, identity-seeking young women. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By capturing formative moments, both mundane and momentous, Greenfield delves into the psyches of girls and young women. The book features striking photographs of the girls immersed in everyday life, exposing private, candid moments as well as public ones, from eating disorder clinics to tanning salons. Greenfield’s photojournalist approach to her capturing gives readers a lens into their lifestyle, struggles, and emotional development. Made over a five-year period, the book dives into the insecurities of a diverse spectrum of girls. Greenfield truly gets at the core of girlhood<\/em>. In a personal reflection on Girl Culture, Greenfield acknowledges the wide span of girls and women in the book, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the photos are undoubtedly moving, it’s Greenfield’s meaningful interviews<\/em> and subsequent monologues of her subjects that truly set her work apart. In a report by Institute Artist, Greenfield is described like a “hungry reporter keen to understand what it means to be a girl in America” <\/a>(Institute Artist). Greenfield is known to take inspiration from photographers like Diane Arbus, who she prides for her “intimacy and directness.” Arbus’ influence can be seen through Greenfield’s “hunger” to get involved in the behind-the-scenes of the photographic process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below, Greenfield explains her intentions behind Girl Culture<\/em> and what it has grown become, a universal reflection on girlhood that women of all ages and backgrounds can relate to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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