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| Greenberg, Jill, Self Portrait with Monkey, ND. |
Have you ever had a teacher ask you about your "production style" or the "common thread" in your editing skills? If so, was your first response to that question, "huh?". American photographer Jill Greenberg is a perfect example of a photographer who has a "common thread" throughout her work. Regardless of her subject matter, Greenberg adjusts her lighting in a manner that is unique to her voice.
Born in 1967, Greenberg grew up in Detroit, Michigan and has been taking photographs since the age of nine. Throughout her education, Greenberg excelled in both art and photography. After graduating from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Photography, Greenberg began working for Sassy magazine in 1992 as a commercial photographer. Greenberg has achieved success as a commercial photographer although still maintained a place in the fine art world. In an interview about book titled "Horses", Greenberg stated last month, "I thought that I should just focus on doing the commercial thing until I
could get to a point where I would have economic freedom and be able to
afford to do the personal work. Doing photography is expensive, and I
didn’t want to wait tables and be a starving artist. I’ve always liked
doing portraits and seeing my work outdoors on billboards, but I’ve
always had other ideas to explore. (Greenberg, Complex)". Her commercial photography career has included images of musicians, movie and television promotional images, fashion, and products - to name a few:
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| All Photos By: Jill Greenberg |
As noted above, Greenberg is also a fine art photographer. She has always been clear on the fact that her commercial work has inspired her fine art photography. For example, Greenberg has a series of images taken of different monkeys. The idea for this body of work was inspired by a commercial shoot. Greenberg was photographing a Capuchin monkey for an advertising job; the monkey was dressed up in a pink outfit and was having a tea party with two little girls. After noticing the uncanny human expressions the Capuchin monkey was giving, Greenberg got the idea to take a portrait. This turned into a series of portraits of many different monkeys.
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| Greenberg, Jill, Monkeys, 2006. |
After viewing Greenberg's work, you're bound to notice that her images are similar in terms of lighting, composition and post-production. When studying Greenberg's work, it's important to remember although she does use Photoshop to edit her images, the majority of the "magic" is created by her attention to lighting. Maura C. Lanahan of Digital Photo Pro quoted Greenberg as saying, “I use a lot of masking, apply color curves, dodge
and burn. It's all done by hand, like painting. My background being
illustration, I still draw and paint because I enjoy it, so my digital
manipulations are just a derivative of those techniques” (Lanahan, Web).
Although she's been working in the field of photography for 30+ years, Greenberg has noted that she did not commit to a style until the late 1990s. It takes many years for photographers to find his or her style - his/her voice. To see more of Greenberg's commercial work, please click "here". To see more of her fine art images, click "here".
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01. "Jill Greenberg." Jill Greenberg. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
02. "JILL GREENBERG: Art." JILL GREENBERG: Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
03. Jill Greenberg. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.
04. Lanahan, Maura C. "Jill Greenberg - The Look Of Greenberg." Digital Photo Pro. N.p., 22 May 2007. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.