Girl Culture

Afterimage, March-April, 2003 by Thomas McGovern

Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona, October 5 - December 8, 2002;

Pace MacGill, New York City, October 25 - December 7, 2002;

Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles. December 5 - February 8, 2003.

Lauren Greenfield's Girl Culture is an unflinching look at the social pressures faced by young American women. At times tough and sympathetic, it is a major work for women's studies and represents an important shift away from the conspicuously staged photography of the past decade, returning to the medium's roots as a spontaneous and intuitive art form. The exhibition was organized and debuted at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson in October and overlapped with the showing at Pace MacGill in New York and closed in February at Stephen Cohen Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition has an extensive travelling schedule, which can be found at www.girlculture.com.

Photography is such a plastic medium that it easily accommodates diverse modes of expression and has certainly seen a variety of approaches to all subjects since the announcement of its invention in 1839. As such, Greenfield's work is not a new direction but a reaffirmation of a familiar one. As we all know, contemporary photography has ventured deeply into the staged fictions of Hollywood films, with obvious inspiration derived from digital technology that makes seamless fictions possible and the massive, super-sharp digital print the norm. Increasingly, large production crews, storyboards and meticulous staging are employed. With this important and innovative approach has come a cost- the reduction of spontaneous photographs that seek to address important social and political issues and an impersonal photographic print, perfect in its production but often lacking in emotional resonance. With the zeal of a religious fanatic, Greenfield sidesteps this current trend and brings photography back down to earth, r eminding us why so many have taken up cameras in the first place.

Working with a 35mm camera and photographing and interviewing women and girls in myriad situations, the photographer produces modestly sized prints that deeply examine young women across America. As powerful and ambitious as Robert Frank's The Americans, the photographs are intimate, but the project is expansive and the artist's personal point of view masterfully balanced with an evident but tempered respect for the people pictured. Two of the striking characteristics of the photographs are that some are slightly out of focus and most are quite grainy, both being unheard of in today's highly controlled staged photography and digital prints. Though these two characteristics may seem minor points, they are refreshing and demonstrate a return to the basics of picture making. Obviously, the photographer is working quickly and intuitively and her prints are traditional photographs without the aid of fractal-based software. Most of the prints are 11 x 14" and 16" x 20", quaint by contemporary standards.

This work reminds me of the day when I first saw Nan Goldin's Ballad of Sexual Dependency in 1986. At the time, postmodernism reigned and Cindy Sherman was empress, along with the dense, theory inspired works of Sherrie Levine, Barbara Kruger, Richard Prince and others. Their works were highly intellectual and anti-photographic in that the images were pre-concelved, and it really didn't matter who actually made the photograph as much as who determined the context or who staged the scene. Traditional photography, that is, images about the real world or those that sought order from the chaos of real life, was on the wan except in editorial and the growing photojournalism-as-art circle. Goldin's no-holes-barred diary was shocking for its lack of control, brutal honesty and anti-intellectualism. These characteristics went against the grain of photo traditionalists and post modernists and in doing so she set another course to follow. Times have changed a lot and the methods and approaches to photography are expans ive and give artists many roads to follow, but the prominence of Greenfield's work and practically universal acclaim it has received signals a renewed interest in the intuitive and tough eye of the working photographer. This influence can be seen in many of the younger photographers of the moment, especially the work of Ryan McGinley currently at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (www.phhfineart.com).

For this project, Greenfield spent over five years photographing young women and girls, seeking insight into their unique experiences and influence, with an emphasis on sexuality and body image. As you can imagine, the outcome has many troubling conclusions but Greenfield's talent and obvious commitment to the subject create a compelling and complex sociological/artistic study. The exhibitions keep our attention on the images with only cursory wall statements. The handsome publication of the same title adds a deeper layer of sociological analysis with text by Joan Jacobs Brumberg and excerpts from interviews with the subjects. Though both book and exhibition are able to stand alone, to fully appreciate Greenfield's content and innovative approach, viewers need to see both. I found a pervasive sadness to many of the interviews and photographs, where young women recount the pressure on them to be sexual, thin and attractive. While practically everyone interviewed scorns such superficial ideals, they simultaneou sly collude by furthering the same stereotypes and pass these misguided ideas on to each other, creating a disturbing portrait of self awareness intertwined with victimization.