Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood

This exhibit features 43 photographs by Lauren Greenfield, documenting the experience of young people growing up in Southern California in the mid 1990s. While the photographs themselves are specific to one unique geographic location, the issues and experiences that are examined could be part of the teen experience anywhere. The youths struggle with the influence of wealth, racial and economic prejudice, drugs, sex and an image-based culture that glorifies youth, beauty and celebrity. Greenfield's photographs of Beverly Hills teens working out with personal trainers are set next to images of East Los Angeles graffiti artists. In all cases, whether recording the rich or poor, the overall impression is that to grow up as a teenager in Los Angeles is to grow up quickly, as both the illusions of Hollywood and the neighborhood peer pressure of the youth culture itself dominate the lives and rituals of the young. Exhibition held in the Main Gallery space.