Critique of an Image

In my past projects, I focused on a similar concept as Laura Greenfield but of course handled it completely different to show materialism and consumerism. Her project was much more straight forward and readable, focusing on a single subject within consumerism, kids and money. What makes her stand out more than the other artists is simply that I stumbled into the Getty Center in LA this weekend, and although I did not have time to see the most of the works on display, I stopped in for a peak and Laura Greenfield was a part of the exhibition I saw. This particular image that I enjoyed at the CCP print viewing was not on display at the Getty, where a young girl in a ballerina outfit sits relaxed in a shoe store.

The centered young girl is sitting relaxed on the couch in a relatively suggestive position in a shoe store, waiting as her mom shops. She is at the bottom half while shoes take up the top hovering over her like a thought bubble. Her attention is elsewhere but follows the diagonal lines created by the counter top and couch. This image exemplifies how and why more and more girls are so materialistic these days, and speaks much more than my words. Kids are introduced to materialistic ways as young children and as they grow up, their only concerns are buying clothes and accessories to keep up with our ever changing fashions as seen in the media. I’ve always been a bit frustrated with materialism, and tend to make my photographs say something against it which was very difficult for me communicate, whereas Greenfield documents the issue and makes just as compelling an argument. This image says that girls grow up wanting to spend money to look good, glamorous like the girls in the media. On another level, it communicates that kids in general are growing up wanting to spend money to feel happy, though the things they want are insatiable desires. Laura Greenfield probably created this work to speak about America’s youth that get so caught up in consumerism they do not have a chance to appreciate life’s true pleasures that last forever. It seems to attempt to make a statement that might allow kids to reconsider their values, or at least it is what I want it to do and what I tried to do in my work. The short film with interviews of children from which this is taken is even more provocative. She has such a non-judgmental approach showing the nearly desperate importance of shopping and the superficial traits of style-obsessed teens, making us question what values America is teaching its youth.