Jill Greenberg - Awesome Photogrpaher, Awesome Feminist.

A few nights ago, I was invited to hear Jill Greenberg give a lecture at the Annenberg Space for Photography. I was pretty excited, having had known her work in the past, such as the End Times series (aka " the crying babies" series), as well as being familiar with her monkey and bear portrait books.

The lecture was about Beauty Culture. This is where I learned she wasn’t just outspoken politically. I would say she is modern day feminist, making some pretty good points and statements about woman being tortured from Renaissance times to now, and comparing woman’s high heels and dresses to medieval torture devices.

Greenberg showed a slide show of her senior thesis called “the female object”. The slide show depicted images of how Greenberg felt a mans eye can distort a womans view of herself. I particularly liked the method of lighting she used. It reminded me of some fo the work done by David Lachapelle and Patrick Ecclesine.

When asked by someone in the audience “How do you justify manipulating an image and playing a part in upholding woman to impossible standards?” she replied "I don’t, I’m a sell out" she went on to say “I have kid, I have a mortgage. If they want to give me a cigarette campaign, I’ll take it.. If I don’t take it, someone else will”. Her honesty was comedic and refreshing.

There were a lot of questions about the controversial 2006 “End Times” series, as well as a picture she had taken of John McCain in 2008 while running for president.

For those of you who do not know what the controversy was over. The End Times series had people up in arms for 2 reasons. 1. Making kids cry for the camera, in which Jill had the kids parents give them a candy and take it away, then give the candy back when the shot was over.. (Hardly anything that would scar a child for life). and secondly, Some felt that the children were being exploited to make a political statement.

The McCain controversy came when Greenberg was hired by The Atlantic to photograph John McCain, for the cover of their magazine. Which she did, and the magazine was happy with the images, However she also took additional photos of him, to portray him in a sinister light, and then posted the pictures on her website.

Greenberg was nice and respectful enough to answer these questions, but I got a sense that she was tired of answering the same questions over and over again, and understandably so.

Jill Greenberg closed her lecture by saying, she was dissapointed that most of the lecturers for the Beauty Culture series were men.

Top 5 Celebrity Photographers

These are my Top 5 (living) celebrity photographers at the moment..

Some of you may not may not agree.. And to you I say..

Start your own blog! Better yet.. let's argue it out in the comment box below =)

I'm only going to do bios of them for now. .. so I can blog about each one in more detail later..

He's been called the modern day Warhol,  Which is no surprise considering Warhol gave him his first professional job as a photographer for Interview Magazine.
His colorful images have been described, as weird, shocking, surreal, sexualized, slightly disturbing, and a bit of an acid trip. He's published 4 books.

With his use of unconventional props, and extraordinary backdrops, He makes the list at number....5

-David LaChapelle

He started off  photo journalist for the Thousand Oaks News Chronicle

in 1986, He has won over one hundred national and international awards from American Photography,

His pictures has been published in Vanity Fair, GQ, Esquire, Details and Rolling Stone.

In 2003 he won a 1st place World Press Photo award.

He's photographed Bono, President Obama, The Dalai Lama, Leonardo Dicaprio and Johnny Depp just to name a few.

4-Dan Winters

He's a Los Angeles based celebrity photographer and well known Hollywood Photographer who has a distinct ability to make an image "pop", and he's incredible at bringing someones personality to life in a photograph.

In 2009 his book Faces of Sunset won first place and tied with Annie Leibovitz's 'At Work' for the prestigious SCIBA Book Award. He funds his personal projects by shooting advertising campaigns for popular television shows such as Glee and 90210, and blockbuster films like The Expendables. His clients include DreamWorks, Paramount, Lionsgate, Showtime, Warner Bros, FOX and others. He is also a contributing photographer to Vanity Fair. He's photographed top celebrities such as Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Shia LaBeouf, Alec Baldwin, Jack Black and many many more..

His use of lighting in a photograph is impeccable.

3-Patrick Ecclsine

She started as a staff photographer for Rolling Stones magazine in the 70's, where she quickly moved up to chief photographer and shot over 170 covers.

In 1983 she worked for Vanity Fair Magazine and in 1998 joined forces with Vouge Magazine.

In addition to her magazine work, she also has done ads for American Express, Gap, Disney, and Louis Voitton.

With 6 books under her belt, and the worlds most iconic images of John Lennon, Demi Moore, and Queen Elizabeth just to name a few.

2-Annie Leibovitz 

Another LA based photographer,

He started his career as a sports photographer shooting everything from surfing, to football players, to boxers,and then he found himself drawn to fashion and portraiture. But he seems to be amazing at whatever it is he shoots.

He's done ad campaigns for Speedo, Kodak, Boost Mobile,

He's shoot countless amounts of TV and movie ads ranging from from Iron Man (1 and 2), Spiderman 3, The A-team, Fantastic 4, Nip Tuck, The Entourage, 24, The X Files,

1. Michael Muller

1-Michael Muller