Fast.Forward.

Laura Greenfield's photos very much impressed me. Her photos were very powerful. What struck me is to us, some of these photos such as the thirteen year old weighing herself with her family looking on and the other 13 year olds who were all dressed up and had their hair all done. To us, this may seem crazy and disturbing, but it shines light on the fact that this is reality to many people. Greenfield says in her artist statement, "They are disturbed by what is exotic and what is familiar. They recognize themselves or their children and at the same time insist that their lives and values are not like those represented in the book." This statement did not shock me at all. It actually made me laugh because I think that is exactly how this world works. People are more than willing to point fingers and throw stones, but when it comes to their own lives, they don't want to hear it. They don't want to believe it.
"In recent years, I photographed “Fast Forward” youth in Milan and Shanghai. The young and privileged in Shanghai don’t care about politics or communism but are obsessed with MTV, Fashion TV, Gucci, and L.V. (Louis Vuitton). Milanese youth don cutting edge hip-hop fashion originated by the inner city and perfected by haute couture designers. Fourteen-year old Italian girls wear thongs deliberately hiked up over their low-riding pants and rip revealing holes in their jeans. They go out to discos on school nights and dance to American hip-hop and electronica until dawn." I particularly enjoyed this part of her artist statement because we as Americans know what the norms are for the most part throughout our country, but it is interesting to hear about what teenagers are doing and are like in other parts of the world. I am spending some time in Italy and Switzerland this summer and am very interested in seeing the teenagers there and how they are similar and/or differ from our teens here.