Jill Greenberg
Encyclopedia
Jill Greenberg is an American
photographer and artist
. She is known for her portraits and fine art work.
, Quebec
, and grew up in a suburb of Detroit. She graduated with honors in 1989 from the Rhode Island School of Design
with a BFA
in Photography and moved to New York City
to pursue a career in photography. Greenberg moved to Los Angeles
in 2000 where she met her husband Robert.
In 2007 Greenberg was selected by French Photo Magazine for their 40th anniversary issue to represent one of the 40 most important photographers. She has done commercial work for corporations such as Philip Morris
, Microsoft
, Polaroid
, Dreamworks
, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures
, MGM, Disney, Fox
, Coca Cola, Pepsi
, Smirnoff
, MTV
, Warner Bros.
, Sony Music, and Atlantic Records
. Her photos have appeared on the covers of Time
, Newsweek
, Wired
, Fast Company
, Entertainment Weekly
and numerous other publications. Celebrities and CEOs who have used her head shots and portraits include Clint Eastwood
, Glenn Close
, Steven Spielberg
, James Cameron
, Jeff Bezos
, and Richard Jenkins
.
Her artwork has been featured in Harper's, The New Yorker
, The New Republic
and several other publications. Her monkey series has been purchased by art collectors worldwide. Her work has been shown at CLAMPART in New York and Fahey/Klein in Los Angeles. In addition, her artwork has been exhibited in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Paris, France; Adelaide, Australia; San Francisco; Chicago; and various other cities.
Greenberg is credited by some within the commercial photography industry as having produced several unique styles that have since been emulated by other photographers. "Like LaChapelle
and Avedon
, Jill has pioneered a new style of photography, and her impact can be seen throughout the entertainment industry", the creative director of a Los Angeles
creative agency told Brief magazine, with the publication itself characterizing her work as employing "distinctive ethereal backlighting." A president of NBC Entertainment Marketing who has employed Greenberg on a number of occasions due to what he terms her "distinct and innovative aesthetic" observed that "many other photographers follow her lead."
Greenberg herself has acknowledged having made particular use of digital post production, adapting the nickname "The Manipulator" early in her career due in part to her relatively early adoption of Photoshop, a product she has used since its release in 1990. Nonetheless, she told an interviewer in 2011 that some of what her fans believe to be post production is instead the result of close attention to lighting, merely supplemented with minor "flourishes" afterwards. Greenberg suggested in a 1998 New York Times article on female gamers that her affinity for technology came from her mother: "My mom was a math buff and a science major in college. ... In 1964, she became a COBOL
programmer and helped support my father through med school. She used to write programs on keypunch cards for mainframes."
Greenberg's End Times, a series of photographs featuring toddlers, was the subject of controversy in 2006. The work featured stylized hyper real closeups of children's faces contorted by various emotional distresses. The pieces were titled to reflect Greenberg's frustration with both the Bush administration
and Christian Fundamentalism in the United States
. The method for getting the children to cry, in some cases, achieved by offering the children candy, then taking it away, spurred allegations of unethical conduct and provoked the submission of numerous complaints to the art gallery that hosted a public showing of Greenberg's work.
for the magazine's October 2008 cover. Once the magazine hit the newsstands, Greenberg admitted to a photo industry magazine to shooting additional images, to depict McCain in a sinister light, so that she could create her own political art. Greenberg also posted to her website altered versions of photographs. She told Maclean's magazine that "it was the one questionable thing that I did in my career."
"She has, in fact, disgraced herself, and we are appalled by the manipulated images of John McCain she has created for her Web site," the Atlantic wrote in an editor's note. "Obviously, we will not work with her again."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographer and artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
. She is known for her portraits and fine art work.
Biography
Greenberg was born in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, and grew up in a suburb of Detroit. She graduated with honors in 1989 from the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
with a BFA
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
in Photography and moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to pursue a career in photography. Greenberg moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 2000 where she met her husband Robert.
In 2007 Greenberg was selected by French Photo Magazine for their 40th anniversary issue to represent one of the 40 most important photographers. She has done commercial work for corporations such as Philip Morris
Philip Morris USA
Philip Morris USA is the United States tobacco division of Altria Group, Inc. Philip Morris USA brands include Marlboro, Virginia Slims, Benson and Hedges, Merit, Parliament, Alpine, Basic, Cambridge, Bucks, Dave's, Chesterfield, Collector's Choice, Commander, English Ovals, Lark, L&M, Players and...
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Polaroid
Polaroid Corporation
Polaroid Corporation is an American-based international consumer electronics and eyewear company, originally founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land. It is most famous for its instant film cameras, which reached the market in 1948, and continued to be the company's flagship product line until the February...
, Dreamworks
DreamWorks
DreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, MGM, Disney, Fox
Fox Entertainment Group
The Fox Entertainment Group is an American entertainment industry company that owns film studios and terrestrial, cable, and direct broadcast satellite television properties...
, Coca Cola, Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
, Smirnoff
Smirnoff
Smirnoff is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov , the son of illiterate Russian peasants. It is now distributed in 130 countries.Smirnoff products include vodka, flavored...
, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
, Sony Music, and Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
. Her photos have appeared on the covers of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, Fast Company
Fast Company (magazine)
Fast Company is a full-color business magazine that releases 10 issues per year and reports on topics including innovation, digital media, technology, change management, leadership, design, and social responsibility...
, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
and numerous other publications. Celebrities and CEOs who have used her head shots and portraits include Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
, Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
, Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos
Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos is the founder, president, chief executive officer , and chairman of the board of Amazon.com.-Early life and background:...
, and Richard Jenkins
Richard Jenkins
Richard Dale Jenkins is an American stage, film, and television actor. After beginning his career in theatre, Jenkins made his film debut in 1974, and appeared in supporting roles in numerous film productions in the 1980s and the 1990s. His breakthrough came in the 2000s for playing the deceased...
.
Her artwork has been featured in Harper's, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
and several other publications. Her monkey series has been purchased by art collectors worldwide. Her work has been shown at CLAMPART in New York and Fahey/Klein in Los Angeles. In addition, her artwork has been exhibited in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Paris, France; Adelaide, Australia; San Francisco; Chicago; and various other cities.
Greenberg is credited by some within the commercial photography industry as having produced several unique styles that have since been emulated by other photographers. "Like LaChapelle
David LaChapelle
David LaChapelle is a photographer and director who works in the fields of fashion, advertising, and fine art photography, and is noted for his surreal, unique, sexualized, and often humorous style.-Early life:...
and Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
, Jill has pioneered a new style of photography, and her impact can be seen throughout the entertainment industry", the creative director of a Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
creative agency told Brief magazine, with the publication itself characterizing her work as employing "distinctive ethereal backlighting." A president of NBC Entertainment Marketing who has employed Greenberg on a number of occasions due to what he terms her "distinct and innovative aesthetic" observed that "many other photographers follow her lead."
Greenberg herself has acknowledged having made particular use of digital post production, adapting the nickname "The Manipulator" early in her career due in part to her relatively early adoption of Photoshop, a product she has used since its release in 1990. Nonetheless, she told an interviewer in 2011 that some of what her fans believe to be post production is instead the result of close attention to lighting, merely supplemented with minor "flourishes" afterwards. Greenberg suggested in a 1998 New York Times article on female gamers that her affinity for technology came from her mother: "My mom was a math buff and a science major in college. ... In 1964, she became a COBOL
COBOL
COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages. Its name is an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, defining its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments....
programmer and helped support my father through med school. She used to write programs on keypunch cards for mainframes."
End Times controversy
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...
and Christian Fundamentalism in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The method for getting the children to cry, in some cases, achieved by offering the children candy, then taking it away, spurred allegations of unethical conduct and provoked the submission of numerous complaints to the art gallery that hosted a public showing of Greenberg's work.
The Atlantic Magazine and John McCain photograph controversy
In August 2008, Greenberg was hired by The Atlantic to photograph John McCainJohn McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
for the magazine's October 2008 cover. Once the magazine hit the newsstands, Greenberg admitted to a photo industry magazine to shooting additional images, to depict McCain in a sinister light, so that she could create her own political art. Greenberg also posted to her website altered versions of photographs. She told Maclean's magazine that "it was the one questionable thing that I did in my career."
"She has, in fact, disgraced herself, and we are appalled by the manipulated images of John McCain she has created for her Web site," the Atlantic wrote in an editor's note. "Obviously, we will not work with her again."
Feminist theory
Greenberg's work and career has focused intermittently on feminist issues, starting with her senior thesis at RISD, "The Female Object", the premise of which concerned "The disciplinary project of femininity" and what Greenberg sees as the predetermined failure of all women who attempt to "succeed" at it. Greenberg's official bio cites the backlash resulting from the McCain/Atlantic incident as having prompted her to return to "the question of what is tolerated by women in our culture." Her more recent Glass Ceiling series stems from a commercial shoot in which Greenberg was asked to photograph members of the U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swim Team swimming in high heels, an element that heightens sexuality while also hampering ability. According to a press release/bio released ahead of an exhibition and talk, "The result is a sadly relevant series of shots depicting women struggling to keep head above water in a context defined by the constraints pressed upon them by others."Awards
- 2010 AP26 American Photography
- 2010 PDN PIX Digital Imaging
- 2009 AP25American Photography
- 2009 PDN PIX Digital Imaging
- 2009 Society for Publication Designers
- 2008 Nominee, New York Photo Awards, Advertising (single)
- 2007 AP23 American Photography
- 2007 Society of Publication Designers- Silver Medal
- 2006 Award of Excellence, Communications Arts Photography Annual
- 2006 Print Placement – 2nd Place, PDN/Nikon Self Promotion
- 2006 Direct Mail Award – 1st Place, PDN/Nikon Self Promotion
- 2005 Special Book - 2nd Place, PDN/Nikon Self Promotion
- 2004 Self-Promo Award - 2nd Place, PDN/Nikon Self Promotion
- 1997 Award of Excellence, Communications Arts Annual