Adrienne Salinger Lecture

I went to the lecture given by Adrienne Salinger last week and thought that she was a very engaging speaker. She began with one of my favorite series, or studies, of hers entitled, Teenager. In this series Salinger went across the country creating portraits of a wide variety and teens in their bedrooms. Salinger mentioned how she was interested in how a teenager's room serves as such a unique representation of themselves because it was probably the only time in their lives when all of their belongings 'would fit in a twelve by twelve space.' She said that she also had Beverly Hills 90210 in mind, in that it was such an artificial representation of how teens really lived. She accompanied her portraits with a clip, or story from her interviews with the teens that she selected which resulted in a very telling portrayal of teenagers. It was left up to the teens to set their scene for the photograph and it is apparent as they all appear slightly stiff or posed, often with a few of their favorite belongings positioned beside them. Salinger spoke on how she gave them control of their setting and that the body language in the photographs were charcterized by her use of equipment, or rather her non- use of a strobe. Because of this the subjects had to hold their position for slightly longer than was perhaps natural or comfortable. Salinger went on to discuss her other studies such as At Home where she photgraphed 95 people who lived alone, her various studio projects, and her series Middle-Aged Men. I was particularly interested in Salinger's projects that involved people and their living spaces, as I found them to be unique and telling portraits.