Lauren Greenfield: Thin

Thin is a film by photographer Lauren Greenfield, a member of VII, and someone with whom I share an interest in how womens body image is affected by society and media. I first met her at her opening at Robert Koch gallery in San Francisco for Girl Culture and have followed her work since then.

Thin takes a look at anorexia and follows several women in a treatment facility in Florida. It’s a documentary that is a very intimate look at the problem and one of the most striking things was how many of the women had to leave treatment prematurely because their insurance ran out. Since the film premiered in 2006, it was shot and predated the current health care debate and highlights many of the shortcomings in our country, but more importantly takes a close look at the impact of our culture’s obsession with body image.

With a good portion of my work involving women in physique sports (bodybuilding, fitness, etc.), I’ve seen quite a bit of the effects of body image on the other end of the spectrum and it’s inspired me to dig a little deeper in my work related to that.