Jill Greenberg

Over the last fifteen years, Greenberg has made memorable images of many of the world’s most recognizable celebrities, in addition to creating a recognizable filter of vision itself. An early adopter of digital effects, Greenberg has developed a world that is more intense, more razor-sharp, let’s say supra-real, than the one in which we actually reside. Jill Greenberg creates portraits that seize our attention, that create an altered universe staring back at us.

For the series “Monkey Portraits”, Greenberg has created a series of monkey portraits and asks us to consider, in another way, where we are coming from. We look into her monkey’s expressions, their faces - their peculiar physiognomy - and somehow see ourselves. It is frightening and disorienting and exhilarating and awesome. She mischievously shows us another type of mirror-stage, where we confront an ancient and distorted reflection, another startling spectacle, and try to make sense of who, or what we are seeing. By intentionally anthropomorphizing her monkeys, we can’t help but identify with their gaze, and be reminded of people we know, expressions that we have seen before.