Lauren Greenfield

"Fast Forward" Lauren Greenfield

The lives of teenagers involve delicate balance between who they are on an individual level, and what media/society adds to that individual. Lauren Greenfield gives an interesting introduction to her work in this preface. She describes teenagers growing up in the diverse neighborhoods of LA and all of the outside influences that truly impact their every day lives. She began in an affluent private school, and worked her way into the inner city schools, documenting the teens that she encountered along the way. There were many obvious differences between the teenagers, but at the same time there were many similarities.

One quote from the preface that really resonated with me was, "Whether it is the desire to be an adult when one is a child, to be a gangster when one is privileged, to be famous when one is unknown, or to look like a model when one does not, young people are preoccupied with becoming other than they are" (Greenfield). In this quote I found truth, it is human nature, especially as a teenager to dream of a better or different life. From a young age children are taught to dream about the future and what they want to be when they grow up. From Greenfield's perspective, this aspect of childhood is amplified. In her journey she witnessed affluent teenagers acting like gang members and inner city teens acting as though they were wealthier. This all boils down to the old saying that, "The grass is always greener on the other side." As members of a society influenced by images of the media, children, teenagers and adults alike are always wishing for the better toy, the new clothes or the better paying job. There seems to be no satisfaction with accepting ourselves at face value, but that is what society has led us to believe.

The only part of the preface that I had some trouble with were the references to gang violence and the inner city culture. This was simply because I have no concrete knowledge about it. The only images of gang violence and culture that I have seen have come from television and movies, which is tainted with what the media wants viewers to see and think about it. I have also never spent any significant amounts of time in the inner city and to truly get an understanding of a place, in my opinion you have to be immersed in the culture for a period of time or live there.

Another quote from the preface reminded me of the documentary that we watched during Marco's presentation about hip hop. "Kids from all sides of the tracks idealized the images of gangsta rap and mimicked those that were missing in their own lives. Affluent kids dressed and talked like gangsters; inner-city kids simulated the trappings of wealth." (Greenfield) She brings up the point that media effects teenagers from all walks of life and does not discriminate, everyone is pretty much receiving the same message, but may interpret those messages in a different way.

Towards the end of the preface Lauren Greenfield discusses how, "The pictures are not intended as portraits and do not attempt to portray the "essence" of individual subjects. Rather, I have tried to make pictures that reveal an element of our culture as it manifests itself in the lives of children." I would like to find out what elements of our culture were the most prominent in the teenagers she documented. From reading the preface I would guess wealth, but I wonder if anything unexpected turned up during her research.