Jennifer Greenburg

(b.1977; resides Chicago, IL)

The Kawals, 2004

Alia in her Brooklyn Kitchen, 2006

Hawleywood’s, 2005

My initial discovery of this population was through my lifelong love of vintage clothing and music. It was with great surprise that my interest uncovered an entire culture of people who love the things I love, yet who also live their lives in such contrast to my own contemporary realities. - Jennifer Greenburg

Since 2001, Jennifer Greenburg has taken the mantels of both participant and voyeur while photographing rockabillies throughout the Midwest. Her large-scale color photographs show not only the 1950s clothing and décor favored in rockabilly culture, but also the activities and values her subjects have adopted in accordance with that era. While their revival of a mid-20 th century middle-class lifestyle is meticulous, it is equally selective, borrowing from a particular vision of American life rather than seeking to recreate its realities. A subtly selective focus in these pictures draws attention to particular details in each scene, a cue that the photographer is interpreting and not just recording the places and poses before her.

Jennifer Greenburg was born in Chicago in 1977. She holds a BFA in fine arts from The School of the Art Institute in Chicago, and an MFA in conceptual art (emphasizing documentary video and photography) from the University of Chicago. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; IUN Gallery for Contemporary Art, Gary, IN; and ARC Gallery, Chicago. Light Work awarded her a grant and Artist in Residency for 2005, publishing a selection of The Rockabillies in the 2006 Contact Sheet annual. Greenburg has taught at Columbia College Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Harold Washington College in Chicago, and College of Lake County in Grayslake, IL. She is the recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Grant (2007), an Illinois Committee of The National Museum of Women in the Arts Grant Honorable Mention (2006), and a Stuart and Iris Baum Project Completion Grant (2005).

- Kendra Greene

PAST PORTFOLIO

The Stricklands, 2003

Tom Colbertson, 2004

Amazon Anne and Stephan in Berwyn, 2003