Fast Forward by Lauren Greenfield.  Chronicle Books, 2004 (2^nd Edition).

My intention was to return to my own culture and re-explore an experience that was formative and about which I was ambivalent.

– Lauren Greenfield, 2005

Lauren Greenfield’s work in Fast Forward are the images that I’m most familiar with, but many of her bodies of work deal with the pressures facing children, tweens and teens in today’s capitalist culture.  This includes her work in Girl Culture and Thin. 

Greenfield grew up in Los Angeles, and attended the prestigious Crossroads high school, so many of her subjects in this book are close to home.

The funny thing is that I always feel more hope for the subjects in Joseph Szabo’s photographs than I do for Greenfield’s subjects.  The tweens and teens in Szabo’s photos may be working class, and may be a mess of emotions, but there is never the heavy handedness of pressures of parents, society and the media that is present in Greenfield’s photos.

In Fast Forward, her subjects have been naturalized into their environment.  They’re ability, desire and willingness to adapt is impressive and scary all at the same time, and you may find yourself (at least I did) questioning all the things you consider to be “normal”.

The presence or lack of money is an underlying theme in many of the photos, as well as the desire to be attractive to peers, and to live up to physical standards portrayed by the media.

I’m always struck by how old everyone looks, even though youth is such a commodity in Southern California, even the seven year olds look old in a strange way.  The images of Brandon and Cube kill me every time.

An interesting read for anyone 13 and older.