Jill Greenberg est née en Juillet 1967 à Montréal (Canada) et a grandi dans le sud de Détroit. Elle est diplômée en 1983 par la Rhode Island School of design avec un BFA en photographie et part à New York à fin de poursuivre sa carrière de photographe. Elle réside en ce moment à Los Angeles avec son mari Robert et sa fille Violet. Son style de traitement d’image lui a value un surnom peu commun, « Manipulator ». Elle manipule tellement ses photographies dans un style qui lui appartient totalement., qu’on ne peut même pas désolé si s’est un cliché ou un peinture.

Video: Brutales Baby-Casting in dem Kinofilm “Brüno”

Eine der besten Szenen aus der wirklich-nicht-so-schlechten “Borat”-Fortsetzung “Brüno” zeigt den Komiker Sacha Baron Cohen in der Rolle des österreichischen Fashion-Typen Brüno beim Casting potentieller Baby-Models. Es ist eine wunderbar ambivalente Szene (Ist das noch lustig? Ist das schon traurig?), die zu entlarven scheint, wie sehr einige Eltern bereit sind, ihre Kleinkinder absurden Situationen und Gefahren auszusetzen, nur um sie (und sich) als Models berühmt und interessant zu machen: “Könnten wir bei dem Fotoshooting mit ihrem Kind Bienen und Hornissen verwenden?” — “Ja, klar!” — “Was ist mit brennendem Phosphor?” — “Oh, mein Baby liiiebt brennendes Phosphor.” Und so weiter.

Ganz abwegig ist die Idee des brutalen Babyfotoshoots (das im Film am Ende unter anderem ein biblisch inszeniertes Foto eines gekreuzigten Kleinkindes ergeben wird) nicht. Als Beispiel aus dem echten Leben fällt mir dazu als Erstes die Fotografin Jill Greenberg ein, die für ihre Fotostrecke “Crying Babies” (hier als Bildergalerie, hier Greenbergs Website) ihre Models allerdings offenbar nicht schlimmer gequält hat, als ihnen Süßigkeiten oder Spielzeug wegzunehmen und sie so zum Weinen zu bringen. Trotzdem hat sie für ihre dramatischen Porträts der “Crying Babies” einiges an Unverständnis und Widerspruch abbekommen (hier zum Beispiel, in bester Blog-Manier formuliert: “Jill Greenberg is a sick woman who should be arrested and charged with child abuse”).

Es hat Jill Greenberg dabei wahrscheinlich nicht wirklich geholfen, dass einige Fotos heulender Kinder mit Bildunterschriften wie “Four More Years” im Netz kursierten — eine Anspielung auf die Wiederwahl von George W. Bush im Jahr 2004. Und auch nicht, dass sie später Bilder des Republikaner-Präsidentschaftskandidaten John McCain entstellte und den von seinen Anhängern als Helden gefeierten Veteran und früheren Kriegsgefangenen als blutrünstiges Monster darstellte.

(Harmloser ist ihre Abneigung gegenüber konservativen Ikonen in der auf ihrer Website ausgestellten Serie “Shiny Faces” umgesetzt, in der sie den  TV-Moderator Glenn Beck im Stile ihrer “Crying Babies” inszeniert. Der konservative Dampfplauderer Beck ist bekannt dafür, dass er in seiner Sendung aus Liebe und Angst um Amerika schon mal zu weinen beginnt — d.h., wenn er nicht gerade Barack Obama als Rassisten bezeichnet.)

Nächste Frage: Ob man Baby-Models mit der frühen Prominenz wirklich einen Gefallen tut? Spencer Elden, der 1991 als kleiner Junge nackt, gierig und samt Penis auf dem Cover des erfolgreichen Nirvana-Albums “Nevermind” zu sehen war, scheint heute mit der Berühmtheit ganz gut klar zu kommen: “I feel like I’m the world’s biggest porn star”, wird er zitiert. Zehn Jahre nach dem Erfolg von “Nevermind” ließ es sich sogar in der gleichen Pose noch mal fotografieren, diesmal trug er dann allerdings doch lieber eine Hose.

Offenbar ist es jedenfalls so, dass die Artdirektoren dieser Welt von nackten/heulenden/gepeinigten Baby-Models nicht lassen können. Und, dass es genug Eltern gibt, die bei dem Spiel mitmachen. Aktuell ziert das dramatische Foto eines heulenden, kaum bekleideten Kleinkinds das Titelbild des TIME-Magazine, das eine kaum weniger dramatisch übertitelte Geschichte bewirbt: Einen Jahrzehntsrücklick 2000–2009 namens “The Decade From Hell”. Ob sich da in zehn Jahren mal ein Teenager drüber ärgern wird?

(Das TIME-Foto ist übrigens gar kein Foto, sondern ein Video-Still. Aber egal.)

Bear Portraits by Jill Greenberg

The portraits in this book are gorgeous. Full-grown brown bears, grizzlies, black bears, Polar bears, and bear cubs are photographed in a studio against a portrait backdrop. The poses are cute, funny, frightening, thoughtful and the bears at times seem almost human.

For me, the bears lose some of their awesomeness by being taken out of nature, but that’s just me. They’re a little too clean here, too perfect.

The photos are beautiful, though, letting us see these amazing, fascinating creatures face to face. I can see animal lovers adoring this book.

“Only the gentle are ever really strong.” -James Dean (as quoted in Bear Portraits)

My copy was provided by the publisher for review, and the above is my honest opinion. I am an Amazon Associate.

Copyright © Jill Greenberg

I didn’t think much of Jill Greenberg’s infamous, highly retouched, photographs where she makes children cry until I saw her controversial photos of John McCain late last year. I began to appreciate her retouching skills and how she can make things seem beautiful even though they’re ugly or uncomfortable to observe. Greenberg is completely unapologetic in interviews in regards to her style, and she should be, I mean every photographer wants to find a unique style that anyone can look at and know who did it. At the moment, I’m loving Jill’s photos of bears, the polar bear on the cover of her new book reminded me of the Disney movie Earth that came out over the summer. I loved the polar bear scenes that opened and closed the film. Once again Greenberg uses a glossy shell for the bears the same way she does for kids, but this time the gloss belies the monster underneath the cuddly exterior. Although I suppose the same could be said about little children…

Bear Portraits
By:  Jill Greenberg
Category:  Photography
Price:  $26.99 USA / $32.99 Canada
ISBN:  9780316031882

Popular celebrity photographer Jill Greenberg who has photoed for companies such as:  Dreamworks, Sony Pictures, HBO, Bacardi, Rolling Stone, Time and Newsweek.  These studio pictures are simply breath taking.  

This book is the perfect gift for family or friends.  It helped to open dialog in our family by discussing the the need for protection of these bears and how their habitat is endangered.

She has captured man species from the beautiful Polar Bear on the cover to Brown and Black Bears.

Jill Greenberg has captured the bear personalities and paired many of her pictures with famous quotes to achieve the perfect balance for this book.  It is fun and exciting to see all the different species of bears she has captured with her photo eye.

My chlidren love this book and is a great pick for young and old.

…
Design director Brandon Kavulla is overseeing a redesign of Men’s Health, and he’s offering a behind-the-scenes look at the process over at Grids, the official blog of the Society of Publication Designers. The goal of the redesign, Kavulla explains, is “to simplify things and focus on great imagery and simple but expressive typography.”

Conceptual photography seems to be central to the redesign, and Kavulla has posted examples by Todd Hido, Nathaniel Welch, Jill Greenberg, Randi Berez, and Craig Cutler, among others. Read all about it here.

…

Photo by Nathaniel Welch.

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Photo by Randi Berez.

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Photo by Craig Cutler.

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Remember Gwen Stefani’s cd “The sweet Escape ” cover? Well it was Jill Greenberg an American photographer from LA who also worked with the Niptuck and Dexter crew.
For one of her project after politics disagreements, she made children cry by taking the lollipop out of their mouth after giving them.
See her website here !

Most art galleries in NYC are fickle mistresses.  It’s pretty innovative, then, that some of the best photography galleries in the city are collaborating to offer “collectors the unique opportunity of starting a relationship with five different artists and galleries at the same time.”  The initiative, dubbed Project 5, will host monthly salons, initiate a new series of portfolio reviews for emerging artists, and issue a limited-edition portfolio of five prints– a photograph by an artist represented by each of the five participating galleries.

Project 5 partnering galleries include hometown favorite Daniel Cooney Fine Art, ClampArt (I’ve never purchased from here before but love so many of the artists this gallery represents: Jill Greenberg, whose new Zonkey is pictured above and is included in the first portfolio from this collaboration, Brian Finke, and Stephen Wilkes, to name a few), Foley Gallery, Amador Gallery, and Sasha Wolf Gallery.

To review, here are some highlights from the press release:

All images will be unique to the portfolio—made specifically by the participating artists for this project. The artists included are: Olaf Otto Becker from Amador, Jill Greenberg from ClampArt, Stuart O’Sullivan from Daniel Cooney, Thomas Allen from Foley Gallery and Guido Castagnoli from Sasha Wolf Gallery.

The portfolios will be released in an edition of 30, priced with new collectors in mind at $2500. Each print will be signed and numbered by the artist and the portfolio will be enclosed in a custom made clothbound case. The portfolio offers collectors the unique opportunity of starting a relationship with five different artists and galleries at the same time.

Additionally, Project 5 is introducing a series of Portfolio Reviews for artists who feel they would benefit from the valuable input of these gallerists’ expertise. The first Portfolio review will be Sunday, September 20th. Project 5 asks that artists send ten jpgs to projectfivecontact@gmail.com for consideration. Artists can contact any of the participating galleries for more information.

Another exciting collaboration will be a monthly series of Artist’s Salons that will alternate between Project 5’s galleries. The first Salon will be held at Daniel Cooney Fine Art on Saturday, September 26^th at 3:00 p.m. and will feature four emerging artists presenting their latest bodies of work for a half hour each. Participating artists are Timothy Briner, Yola Monakhov, Jessica Dimmock, and Cara Phillips.

Please contact any of the Project 5 galleries for more information.

Daniel Cooney Fine Art:  dan@danielcooneyfineart.com; Foley Gallery:  michael@foleygallery.com; Sasha Wolf Gallery: info@sashawolf.com; ClampArt: brian@clampart.com; Amador Gallery: info@amadorgallery.com

i have to learn how to use photoshop i still want to know how she did it…

We just learned that the Galerie de Bellefeuille in Quebec  and the Acte 2 gallery in Paris have both just added David Drebin to their list of fine artists whom they represent. The Galerie de Bellefeuille, in fact, is already working with David on exhibiting his work at the Toronto International Art Fair October 22–26 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center. Acte 2 also represents Jill Greenberg, Rankin, and our own Nadav Kander.

David sent us the good news from Berlin, corresponding with us by PDA as he enjoyed a lunch of lobster tails at the food court at KaDeWe, the largest department store in continental Europe. “It’s the greatest food court in Europe that I have seen yet,” he wrote enthusiastically. Our American mind can’t quite comprehend the idea of eating lobster at a food court, but the merits of notching two top international galleries? Yeah, we can understand that.

How did Glenn Beck get to crying for his photo shoot with controversial photographer Jill Greenberg? Good ol’ mentholated balm!

The blog and news article circuit is putting an interesting spin on all of this. You can read the “Daily KOs” article  accusing Beck of being a giant faker and using this as proof of it. You can read Gawker’s slant which hints at a little hypocrisy on Beck’s part, reminding readers that he accused Greenberg, the photographer of his cry-a-thon, of “terrorizing children” last year.

Well, kind of.

Jill Greenberg did an artistic photo shoot in 2004 of children crying. To get the shots, she gave the children candy and then took it from them. Here are Greenberg’s photos of a few of the children.

Jill Greenberg's Sunday Times Magazine Cover

Later, September 15, 2008 on CNN Glenn Beck was talking about photographer Jill Greenberg’s controversial photo shoot of John McCain for “Atlantic Monthly Magazine.”  On assignment for the magazine, she took a series of pictures of John McCain. In the course of the photo shoot she asked McCain to pose for a set that she had deliberately designed to light him in manner that produced a more sinister, some might say more realistic, appearance. She said, quote, “I left his eyes red and his skin looking bad.” She later delivered the commissioned pictures to the Atlantic and took the others back to her studio for some Photoshop fun. Here are few of the results:

You might have guessed that Glenn Beck was not a huge fan of this photo shoot. After sharing his thoughts on that he said, “By the way, this isn’t the first time this photographer has been in the middle of controversy. In 2004, to describe her political helplessness, she took a series of supposedly artsy photos of toddlers crying. How did she get this shot? Well, she gave the kids candy, and then she snatched it away from them. They’d cry uncontrollably, and she’d just click away. Isn’t it just fantastic art? Nothing more beautiful than a child being terrorized. And, as a guy that would kill you if you take away my candy, I feel their pain.” You can read the entire transcript on CNN.

Commenting on Beck’s photo shoot Greenberg said, “The crying was my idea, and Glenn was cool with trying it. We used mentholated balm to make his eyes tear up naturally. From then on it was acting on his part. He had fun with it and was a great sport.”

I watched the video of Glenn Beck’s shoot by Greenberg. It looks to me like they (the both of them) are just having fun. I am sure they were both quite aware of the crying baby/crying Beck parallel. It doesn’t look like some big fraud to me. It looks like a photo shoot which will get Beck’s new bestselling book a little publicity. Just in case you want that to work for him, click on his new book to buy it now at 45% off list price with FREE shipping!

Glenn Beck's Hot New Bestseller- Common Sense

You can watch the shoot yourself here:

Keith Ferrazzi has a new book “Who’s Got Your Back?” It’s a positive, inspirational book that can show you how to improve your life NOW. Check it out HERE.

Once you start checking this stuff out, you can’t stop. At least not easily.

Certain photographers have become known for their “looks”. We mentioned Dave Hill and Jill Greenberg yesterday – two photographers definitely known for their “looks”. I happen to like their looks but in some ways they may get pigeon-holed into continually supporting it, making it tough to escape sometimes. Some people would call that their style – and I think it definitely is – but one shouldn’t necessarily be held to their style ALL the time. Still, clients get to know that style and come to count on it, so it can certainly pay the bills.

Sports shooter Dustin Snipes has this revealing look at mixing hard rim light with soft key light to produce some compelling portraits. There are also frequent examples of using shutter speed and light:subject:background ratios to vary the background of the shot. There are also wonderful set-up shots that walk you through how he lit the scene. 

Dustin is also guest blogging on Scott Kelby’s website today and he walks through his Photoshop post-processing technique to achieve the final look.

Once you start looking at this stuff, it’s only a matter of time before you’re after your own look.

Two other lighting tidbits to pass along. Nice Magazine’s Photo Blog finished up a nice and brief three-part segment on hard light vs. soft light yesterday – by hitting you with the combo light. There are links in the article to the first two parts – a good look at things to understand the contrast between hard and soft light.

Atlanta-based shooter Zack Arias loves his light too. Not only does Zack sell a DVD version of his “One Light Workshop” (check out the trailer on his site), but he passed through Central Illinois last September in a bizarre small world confluence as it relates to photography. Jeff and Julia Woods, who do a little photography of their own in Washington, IL, hosted a conference back in September aimed at married couples who work together/live together/spend 24×7 together - particularly in the photo industry. They could be considered experts at this. Arias spoke of his experiences on the subject – which is where the connection came from.

And a little more on opportunities in Central Illinois – through Jeff and Julia. They run a three-day workshop (called Exposed – click on the Workshops link)  that is geared toward turning your photographic vision into a business that, as they describe, “will provide you with fulfillment and the balanced life you desire.” The February 2-4 workshop is sold out but there are still spots available in the May 18-20 version. It’s an opportunity to stretch a little – and based on their success with Portrait Life, again, they may know of what they speak.

See what happens when you start walking on the Internet?

The “Photography with Small Flashes” class has kicked off at the Art Guild (okay – who are we kidding – it’ll be the halfway point after this week). One of the electronic handouts that goes with the territory for this class is a resource list of decent lighting resources on the InterTubes. So without further adieu – I give you the list. 

There are plenty of good lighting resources available to you, but probably the very best right off the bat is David Hobby’s website Strobist. This site is as comprehensive a site on small flash lighting as exists, yet the material is patiently and clearly explained in a sequence that just works and is never dense. Check out “Lighting 101” for everything introductary and “On Assignment” for an extensive repotoire of shoots and how they were done.

Another site that is very useful is the gang at Lighting Essentials. This is another website that will walk you through set-up after set-up and give you lots of examples and technical worksheets on how to do it yourself. These guys are also a little more at ease with various states of undress – so be aware of that going in – but they’re top notch lighting technicians. Just last year they started adding “Tech Sheets“, which specifically walk you through a single set-up and how to get the most mileage out of it.

The Lighting Forums at Paul C. Buff are a good forum to get a lot of background on how this stuff works. I’m always pleasantly surprised by what I find there – these guys know of which they speak. It’s also a good jumping in point to inexpensive strobes – the AlienBees.

Photographer David Honl often muses on lighting and sells some of the best small flash add-on products on the planet.

One of my favorite shooters is the amazing Joe McNally. I can’t say enough good things about Joe. His book “The Moment It Clicks” is both lighting instruction wisdom and coffeetable beautiful. A wonderful practical lighting read. He’s got a new book coming out in February called “The Hot Shoe Diaries” that promises to further extend his small flash teaching into the wonderfully creative domain. Joe shoots Nikon and has done a number of videos for Nikon’s Creative Lighting System (Nikon TTL). You can find them on his site too. Joe! Joe! Joe!

The folks at Flash Zebra will sell you almost any unique cable on the planet when it comes to finding clever ways to sync your flashes.

All things Scott Kelby. Scott is the President of the North American Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and an excellent teacher. His “other” website – Kelby Training is full of videos on photographic training. And while it may look Photoshop-family oriented, you’ll find a number of lighting videos there. It’s not free – but it’s top notch teaching from good people – like Joe McNally.

I won’t hold it against him for being a wedding shooter, but David Ziser knows his way around both lighting and teaching. Lots of solid examples and short videos are featured, including the one where you can use that too high sync speed to mask off part of your flash. The guy is also scary when it comes to quantity (and quality) of content. A prolific writer.

Syl Arena is a California-based shooter who also loves to play with lights. His post on high-speed sync explains it about as well as it can be explained. Overall good photography blog too. He also loves Radio Poppers which let you do wireless TTL flash photography.

And if we’re mentioning Radio Poppers – you might as well check out a few of the pricier things on the internet: Pocket Wizards and ProFoto strobes – which has an excellent lighting blog. And I’m sure a couple thousand dollars for some Profoto 7a, 7b, or 8a strobes is all it takes to get up and going in the pro lighting world.

There’s always “Digitial Photography School“. A good site in general for all things photographic, but the good lighting article frequently shows up.

And just for fun: Jill Greenberg and Dave Hill (of the famous Dave Hill look.)

II. Local Photography Resources
Locally, of course, is the Peoria Camera Club and the Peoria Flickr Group. Both groups are full of helpful members who will patiently answer your questions when they arise. You can check out lighting dude and local commercial photographer Kevin May’s site. The guy loves his blue – but he’s okay. And he pretty much just does everything well. Check out his studio work to see how he really works the color angle of lighting. And if you think he’s hurting for studio space – well he’s not.

Most folks locally know about Peoria Camera and the attached Peoria Color Lab. They’re located in the Metro Center in Peoria. Just down the street from there is Rex Camera (in the little plaza at the corner of Sheridan and Lake). No web presence that I’m aware of. The one most folks aren’t aware of is Tallyn’s. They do a lot of their business on the web, but they have a storefront just north of Pioneer Parkway on Altorfer. And they have a blog .

I love the great photography work of Jill Greenberg. Go to her webite and check out much…much more, including some great celebrity shots.

Jill Greenberg

Ciao.

A few months ago portrait photographer Jill Greenberg made news among photographers, editors and others in the industry by shooting photos of John McCain, at that point the Republican nominee for President. She delivered the images exactly as assigned by her client (Atlantic Monthly) and then proceeded to shoot additional images for herself using lighting that was, um, unflattering. The ensuing crapstorm went on for a while with people all around saying not so nice things about other people and it all boiled down to this. She didn’t like McCain, and decided to make him appear evil. Not for publication, just for herself. Generally that’s fine but she really stepped in it when she published them on her blog. It got picked up, and well, it snowballs from there.

That was September. This week the NPR program “On the Media” has a larger story about journalism ethics (or lack thereof) in magazine photography. Their point being that there is no standard of objectivity among magazine photographers as their is among journalists. Generally I like OTM and there’s certainly enough to complain about in the magazine industry when it comes to photography, but they missed a big point. Among photographers, this type of work is generally referred to as editorial. If you turn to the editorial pages of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal you don’t see unbiased, objective journalism. You see analysis and personal commentary by the columnists. 

Photographers have a professional responsibility to their clients. We need to deliver the image they assign to us. We also have a responsibility to the industry our clients represent, in this case magazine publishing. Finally we have a responsibility to our subjects to be honest about our intentions. 

There’s probably an entire graduate level thesis here but in the meantime you can read more about it at…

aphotoeditor.com

Photo District News

On the Media

Jill Greenberg

Atlantic Monthly

NPR’s On the Media has an interesting piece on the topic of journalistic portrait photography.

It covers the neverending debate on whether the portrait is the vision of the photographer, it seems obvious to me, or a “true” representation of the subject/sitter.

What makes this story more interesting than most is who weighs in on the subject.

Platon, Martin Schoeller and the now infamous Jill Greenberg all speak their minds on what they do and why.

Platon especially, is very honest and straight forward about his approach, even wondering why he is still allowed to do what he does.

It is well worth the 15 minute listen.

As a student of the portrait, I love them when they are good, it is a great conversation although I found the narrator a bit heavy handed in his doom and gloom opinions on the state of portraiture and the agendas of all us photographers.

It still blows my mind that there is an assumption of neutrality or objectivity in any photographc work, even journalism. We have a duty to report what we see and to not change the facts, as we see it, but to assume that we all have no opinion and that it would not in some way come across in our work just seems nieve.

Honesty to the story and subject, absolutely,  but objectivity is such a high minded and impossible thing to ask of anyone. We are all a result of our past experiences and emotions and there is no way in my mind to turn that off when we go to “work”.

Chris Anderson also has a good bit to say on this topic. Although not directly related to portrait work, it is a good listen on the topic of subjectivity in journalistic photography.

Give it all a listen and chime in on how you feel.

A fotógrafa canadense Jill  Greenberg   é conhecida por ser polêmica. Na série “End Times”, uma crítica ao  governo Bush e ao Christian Fundamentalism, crianças choram diante de suas lentes. Para conseguir expressões de total desespero, a fotógrafa dava doce e depois pegava de volta.

“The Manipulator”, como a fotógrafa é conhecida nos EUA, foi pautada pela revista Atlantic para fotografar o candidato Republicano John McCain (Jill apoiava Obama). Em seu site ela postou um segundo retrato do candidato com slogan contra seu possível governo. Para o Portal PDN admitiu ter alterado a foto para “a pele do candidato parecer pior e seus olhas mais sinistros”.