October Issue 1999
Two Fall Exhibits Explore Youth Culture And Media Influences at Center for Documentary Studies in Durham, NC
Celebrity, appearances, money, possessions -- and Hollywood's messages about their importance -- are the backdrop for photographer Lauren Greenfield's award-winning exploration of youth culture in Los Angeles, on view at the Center for Documentary Studies in Durham, NC, through Dec. 4. Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood features 50 color photographs that reflect the far-reaching, and at times disturbing, effects of media influences on youth today. A companion exhibit, Youth Culture in North Carolina, which features work by local visual artists examining the media industry's impact on young people closer to home, will also run through Dec.4.
"Although trends come and go, especially among teenagers, I was especially intrigued by the role of the media as a homogenizing force," explains Greenfield. In Fast Forward, she skillfully depicts the surprising similarities between affluent children in Westside private schools and graffiti gangs and party crews in East L.A. Her photographs document with vivid clarity the realities of growing up too fast in a culture that is simultaneously irresistible and demanding, both economically and spiritually.
According to Susan Page, program coordinator for exhibitions at the Center, "The work in these two exhibits speaks to the commonalities of youth that cross both racial and cultural lines. It's clear that the primary difference between the youth of the West Coast and youth of the East Coast is simply geography. The overwhelming concerns for all of them seem to revolve around self-image."
Juried by Kristine Stiles, an artist and associate professor of art history at Duke University, Youth Culture in North Carolina reflects the influence of the media's obsession with alternative lifestyles on the state's youth. Images selected for the exhibit examine a range of characters from punk rockers and skateboarders to beauty queens and beach bums.
"The submissions are intriguingly diverse but are also collectively summarized by one contribution in particular, depicting a young boy holding a self-made sign saying, 'Conquer or be conquered ... good or bad'," says Stiles.
Greenfield will return to Durham in October to work with the Center's Literacy Through Photography project in the Durham Public Schools. In addition, she will give a public slide presentation on Tues., Oct. 19, at 8pm at the Center.
Lauren Greenfield grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Harvard in 1987. Her photographs have been published in The New York Times Magazine, Time, Life, Harper's, and many other periodicals. In 1993 she received support from National Geographic for a project about Los Angeles youth. The resulting work, Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood (Knopf), became a best-selling photography book and received the Community Awareness Award from the National Press Photographers Pictures of the Year competition. A major exhibition of work from Fast Forward was on view at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York and at the Center for Creative Photography (CCP) in Tucson, AZ. In 1997 Greenfield was selected as the Young Photographer of the Year in the ICP Infinity Awards. That year she was also recipient of the National Press Photographers/Nikon Sabbatical Grant. Her work is included in selected public collections, including the Harvard University Archive, the ICP, the CCP, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the St. Louis Museum of Art, and others. Greenfield resides in Venice, CA.
These exhibitions and programs are made possible by support from the Lyndhurst Foundation. This project received support from the NC Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of NC and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Fast Forward exhibit and tour are organized by the International Center for Photography in New York and made possible through the generous support of Banana Republic with additional support from the E.T. Harmax.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call the center at 919/660-3663 or visit the center's website at (http://cds.aas.duke.edu).
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer 427, Bonneau, SC
29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 1999 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 1999 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.