CCP Visit

                          

I have always loved Lauren Greenfield’s work so it was great to see some of her prints in person.  Her bodies of work, Fast Forward and Girl Culture have always been appealing to me because the images really speak about the issue of body image and growing up as a young woman in a highly critical community.  She doesn’t even need to speak about the work because it speaks for itself.  The image that really caught my eye at the print viewing was the one of the young girl weighing herself in the bathroom.  It caught my attention right away because just seeing this very thin and young girl standing on this scale with an audience in the background was very disturbing to me.  The way the image is composed you look at the young girl right away because she is in the foreground dead center.  Also the image is lit so you can see every little detail in the image and it is obvious to me that each detail plays an important role. 

This image is talking a lot about body image but I mainly see the different influences that are being placed on this young girl.  First you have what I think are the parents and sister watching her weigh herself.  It is obvious that this is a normal occurrence in their home and the parents seem so serious and concerned that they will not like the number that presents itself on the scale.  I imagine that the sister is next to weigh herself because she is patiently waiting with an expression that seems so sad.  Another influence I noticed is the stack of magazines off to the left.  It is as if they are part of the audience as well and adding more pressure to measure up to them.  Their clothing seems very odd and out of place to me as well.  Their parents seem to be in their pajamas still so I wonder if the girls are ready to go to an event.  Maybe it is the final weigh in that they have been preparing for in order to measure up to the other girls who will be attending.  Overall I find this image disturbing and saddening to know that this is actually happening. 

I think Greenfield created this work to put a spotlight on the young girls who are being influenced by their families and society to measure up to some sort of social norm.  By putting these images out there maybe she is hoping that people will see them and understand that Hollywood is creating a standard that many young people are struggling to reach.  I think she just wants to bring awareness to this very sad and disturbing issue.

I think by seeing this work it has shown me how important it is to gain the trust of your subjects.  If she hadn’t spent countless hours with these girls and their families then she would have never been able to capture the images she did.  In her work you cannot even tell that she is there but she starts to become part of the scene to them.  It has made me realize that in my project I need to do the same thing because people are letting me into their lives and until I gain their trust it will be obvious that they are uncomfortable in the photographs.