'Girl Culture' photos reveal social pressures

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune announces in the art section a powerful photography show by California photographer Lauren Greenfield. The Minneapolis Center for Photography in NE Mpls hosts the show, which was two years in the making and covers 20 venues around the world.
Greenfield's accompanying book, "Girl Culture" (Chronicle Books, $40), matches the photos with candid ruminations by fat girls, showgirls, anorexics, bulimics, self-mutilators, party girls, shopgirls, pre-teen vamps, a Chattanooga Christian, a Stanford swimmer, a New York model and 13-year-olds from Edina. They talk of "in groups" and "out groups," mockery and humiliation, peer pressure, food and exercise obsessions, having babies, getting "boob jobs" and -- in a rare instance -- the independence and self-esteem that come with athletic skill.