Jill Greenberg

(American, born 1967)

Jill Greenberg is a contemporary American photographer known for her stylized and digitally manipulated imagery. Credited with creating a new photography style which has been described as “distinctive ethereal backlighting,” Greenberg uses commercial photographs to create painterly and emotive images using computer software. Her best-known series, End Times,consists of surreal portraits, the artist captured young children crying in pain, lit in a dramatic fashion similar to Renaissance paintings. “Storms of grief sweep across their features without warning,” Greenberg has said of her young subjects, “a joyful smile can dissolve into a grimace of despair. The first little boy I shot, Liam, suddenly became hysterically upset. It reminded me of helplessness and anger I feel about our current political and social situation.” Born on July 10, 1967 in Montreal, Canada, Greenberg went on to study photography at the Rhode Island School of Design, earning her BFA in 1989. In 1992, she began shooting editorials for the teen fashion magazine Sassy, and gradually began incorporating commercial imagery into her fine art practice. Today, her works are held in the collections of the Portland Art Museum, the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. Greenberg lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.