90's Identity and Invention

Adrienne Salinger, Fred H.

Adrienne Salinger, Donna D.

Adrienne Salinger, Rick V.

Adrienne Salinger, Krissy P.

For this week's selfie, I was inspired by Adrienne Salinger, an American photographer. As I looked into Salinger's work I came across an article about a great photo book of hers entitled In My Room: Teenagers in Their Bedrooms. These photographs were taken over a two-year period in the early 90s. Salinger photographs 43 teens in their private spaces: their room. Every detail in the teen's room reveals who they are. It shows their hopes, dreams, and fears. The commonality in each room is the pop culture images and magazine cut-outs plastered on the walls. This reminded me of an excerpt from Joanne Finkelstein's The Art of Self Invention:

            The idea that character and personality are both immanent in appearance still exerts a strong influence even though it is riddled with ambiguities. We are familiar with the idea in Westernized societies that appearances can be fashioned and that we can choose to dress or behave in a particular manner in order to convey a certain impression. We also know that such makeovers and masquerades are commonplace, that everyone is doing the same. A stylish appearance may liberate us from the strictures of conventional roles, or in reverse - if we play by the rules - a conventional appearance can conceal what we do not want to reveal. (Finkelstein,129-130)

Teens want to be their own person and liberate themselves by styling themselves a certain way, as you can see by the different styles in each photo. The pop culture posters that are seen in every teen's room shows a paradox between how they identify themselves and the need to identify with things outside of us that stereotypically represent teenagers. If you compare it to what Finkelstein says you can say the way they dress could be a way to try and stray away from being labeled what they don't want to identify as but they end up being what they don't want by looking up to pop culture. 

I decided to photograph myself in my own room. I also have a bunch of magazine cut-outs and two canvas paintings of Marilyn Monroe, a popular figure in pop culture. I wanted to express the intimacy and privacy of me in my room. I even reflected on the ideas of Salinger's photo book when I looked back at my own photo.