PHOTOBOOK: GIRL PICTURES – JUSTINE KURLAND
“The girls were surrogates for myself, from a time before I had made certain choices and accepted responsibilities. It’s a time when all things are still possible and being wayward is a form of rebellion, even freedom,” explains photographer Justine Kurland on why she focused on young women and teenage girls for her now-iconic series Girl Pictures.
RESEACHING THE PHOTOBOOK:
‘In the late 1990s, I staged photographs of teenage girls as surrogates for myself in a fantasy of a coming world, one where solidarity between girls offered intimacy and protection, where girls were made stronger through the presence of other girls. I focused on teenagers because of their perpetual state of becoming – a latency that resounds with the freedoms and simple joys of childhood. I wanted to foreground girls’ lives, centring them by creating an all-female society.’ Kurland wanted to present this idea of young teenage girls and how this sense of girlhood is connected by strong bonds and trust girls feel within each other during this period in their lives, where friendship is strong. Kurland used real people as subjects rather then models to try and recreate her childhood fantasy, whereas usually with models you are trying to present something rather then telling.
While Kurland is trying to reinforce this feminine utopian world she is also trying to show the impact of female intimacy and how girls are able to strengthen and support each other whereas individually they are seen as vulnerable and weak, the feminine stereotype. While Kurland trying to highlight this teenage fantasy and support the girls she is playing into the dominant ideology of females. Laura Mulvey states that women are represented for the visual pleasure for the male sex, Kurland supports this theory by representing the girls in a hyper-feminine stereotype; playing in flower fields which have connotations of pure and delicate, girls getting ready in the bathroom perhaps for a night out makeup is stereotypically products for females and they are wearing elegant, earthy colours which men would not stereotypically seen in. This shoot may target a wide range of audiences including: paedophiles, advertisers, recruiters, social-media influencers, fashion magazines, due to the fact they all traffic in photo media.
IMAGES INCLUDED IN PHOTOBOOK:
HOW DID KURLAND MAKE HER IMAGES:
Kurland stated in an article that she ‘photographed on extended road trips across the US, scouting locations and finding girls along the way. The girls would collaborate in staging the scenes. The landscape offered its own drama: the dense undergrowth in the South, the gentle roll of the Midwestern prairie, the shrill light of the Southwest and the expansive vistas of the West.’ Kurland took inspiration from utopian ideals as well as genre paintings, and the photography of Julia Margaret Cameron and Mathew Brady, while also illustrations from fairy tales.
PHOTO ANALYSIS:
Emotional Response:
In this picture Kurland presents femininity through teenage girls and coming of age girls. This image brings nostalgia through looking back reminiscing when at some point all girls were this young. The young girl present this idea of growing up and exploring her identity and how she experiences girlhood as an individual. The use of the colours green and blue, allow the audience to feel a sense of new beginnings and growth as well as freedom and sensitivity.
Visual – what we can see in the image
The mise-en-scene in this image shows a young girl sitting on a rock wall surrounded by hydrangeas. The girl is placed in the centre third of the image, clearly making her the focal point. The connotations of green are new beginnings and growth which can be symbolic of how young the girl is and she is not growing into herself and embracing her personal identity, furthermore the blue/purple hydrangeas bring connotations of wisdom, inspiration, mystery and femininity. The image seems to be taken with natural lighting in an secluded alley which gives an isolated aesthetic and feel to the image.
Contextual – who, when, where etc…the story, background, impact:
Kurland took these pictures as part of her project ‘Girl Pictures’ which have created a large impact for teenage girls. Kurland used these girls as a surrogate for herself so she could present her fantasy of her interpretation of girlhood. Kurland took many road trips in a van and she stated in the Vanity Fair article “I could find girls wherever I stopped, but they went home after we made photographs, while I kept driving, my road trips underscored the pictures I staged—the adventure of driving west a performance in itself.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
https://www.frieze.com/article/justine-kurland-girl-picture-problem
Creative Review, Justine Kurland, By Rebecca Fulleylove 07/07/2020
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/05/justine-kurland-new-book-girl-pictures
https://www.all-about-photo.com/photographers/photographer/1535/justine-kurland
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/justine-kurland?all/all/all/all/0