Adrienne Salinger

I went to the Adrienne Salinger lecture on campus last week on wednesday, and got to meet her in person as well! Salinger gave a long but interesting talk. I am interested in her way of portraying the objects and space that define who we are. Her teeth photographs show what kind of lives we've lived based off of the amount of missing enamel or cavities, just as the teenagers' rooms show their lifestyle. Her commentary on the lives of teens and youth media consumption cracked me up because she found out a few years later that her book on teen bedrooms is used as the movie bible for teen bedroom sets! I was really struck by the Middle Aged Men portraits. I couldn't help but think about how they compare to high school portraits: the use of a black background, the photographer's command on what expression to make, having person after person file in to take the same style of photograph...

I was not as interested in her photos of baseball gloves and skateboards, because although she showed the wear and tear on the objects, which, in turn, showed the lives of the owners, I was not as engaged with the images. I felt like her portraits were much more successful because of the emotion she captured in the people's eyes.