Thin

Lauren Greenfield's photographs reveal the personal struggles faced by women with eating disorders. In Thin (Chronicle Books, 2006), Greenfield's startling and unforgettable photographs are potently paired with diary entries from women who have undergone treatment for eating disorders, giving unprecedented access to their thoughts and feelings. Greenfield was motivated by an interest in what she calls the "cautionary tale" that eating disorders offer about "society's unhealthy emphasis on our physiques and the implied relationships between our inner and outer attributes." The introduction by Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Ph.D., investigates the link between identity and eating disorders as well as the societal reinforcement of being thin. Greenfield offers her interpretation that "perhaps it is due to the power of these ideas in our culture that the pathology of eating disorders has become so common and severe." Greenfield's compelling body of work exposes the reality of the devastating physical effects as well as the underlying obsessive thoughts of eating disorders.