Jill Greenberg

Jill Greenberg is a Canadian/American photographer and pop artist, known for her anthropomorphized animal portraits. She made her breakthrough as a photographer with portraits of Hollywood celebrities such as Liza Minelli, Drew Barrymore, Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, and many more. These images appeared in numerous prestigious periodicals including Time, Wired, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone.

An early adopter of digital effects, Greenberg has developed a world that is more intense, and razorsharp than the one we live in. Her portraits seize our attention, creating an altered universe that stares back at us.

Her ‘End Times’ series encompasses beautifully photographed, poignant images suffused with political and personal relevance. Greenberg’s subject at that time was taboo: children in pain. She utilized this uncomfortable imagery as a way of breaking through the pop mainstream to participate in a growing national dialogue of the real dangers facing the world.

In 2001, Greenberg turned her lens on celebrities of a different sort: monkeys and apes, many of which had appeared on film and television. These brilliant portraits were warmly received, and paved the way for photographs of a wide range of other animals, including bears and horses.

Constructing outdoor studios in Calgary and Vancouver, Greenberg photographed different species of bear, including grizzlies, black bears and a polar bear. As in her celebrity and crying baby photographs and monkey portraits, the artist captures an astonishing array of personalities, expressions, and emotions. She did the same in her show ‘Horses’.

Blown up into massive prints, Greenberg’s bears and horses insistently demand our undivided attention; yet the gorgeous prints also seduce us in a subtler (and perhaps more powerful) way with their sensuous, painterly textures achieved through expert digital finishing.

Jill Greenberg was born in 1967 in Montreal and has lived in Detroit, Los Angeles and New York City.