Martijn van de Griendt:Smokin’ Boys, Smokin’ Girls
New York 21 augustus 2007
Martijn van de Griendt
Martijn van de Griendt:Smokin’ Boys, Smokin’ Girls
Martijn van de Griendt’s second book Smokin’ Boys Smokin’ Girls is a selection of the Dutch photographer’s work documenting youth cultures via the cigarette. Whether hand-rolled or filter-tipped, the cigarette threads its way through the book. However, this is neither essentially a book about smoking, nor does van de Griendt proselytise.
After looking through the book at the portraits of teenagers, the cigarette stops being the central point of interest. Instead, it’s the striking dress codes of the various sub cultures which leap into the foreground. In van de Griendt’s images the young display a kaleidoscope of different looks; multi-coloured hair styles, band T-shirts, flat-caps, coloured bracelets and piercings. The list of possible assemblages appears endless, yet the differences are really only superficial. Looking more carefully at the captions – names, ages, and city or town locations – the essential similarities between the young people are evident. For those on the cusp of adulthood, smoking is a badge of teenage identity, a potent symbol, and a pleasurable pastime. The dangers of cigarette smoking, which are stated so plainly on the packaging, have yet to have any visible effect. This is, after all, the universal domain of youth – and it’s a world devoid of wrinkles.
Smokin’ Boys Smokin’ Girls is just over A5 in size and the photographs are laid out on black pages accompanied by white hand-written captions. The captions derive mainly from observations and anecdotes by van de Griendt, such as Oliver (16), “the odd one out”, Sydney; and Sebas (16) & Lotte (13) after their loveshot (a smoke filled kiss) on a Sunday afternoon in Rijswijk. The introduction is a lively personal reflection by author Marcel van Roosmalen on “being young, smoking, and getting old” and is laid out to create a cut-up style aesthetic, which is in keeping with the pop culture references littered throughout the book.
The photographs were taken over the last decade primarily in Europe but also further afield in Australia, the USA and Japan. From the front cover image of a Marlboro cigarette packet stuffed into a teenager’s flowery vest top to the double-page spread of 15-year-old Roos’s tear-streaked eyes, the various clues in the photographs encourage a deductive line of thought. Why is Roos crying? What just happened? While in other images, it’s a love bite, wide-staring eyes or the caption that piques interest. Cigarettes, tobacco pouches, lighters and other smoking paraphernalia provide an inroad to look for further clues to the various lives of the subjects, where what you smoke and how you smoke it help construct identity.
This is van de Griendt’s second book and it is well edited in terms of the sequencing of photographs. Van de Griendt is clearly a talented photographer possessing a keen eye for the effective use of formal elements, especially colour, with the ability to photograph individuals and groups. The portraits also give a sense of the subject’s personality, which surfaces in subtle facial expressions and posture: in a way of standing, of holding and smoking a cigarette, or simply in the eyes as the gaze is returned. The book is also a great example of the seamless blending of form and content – street photography and youth culture. Van de Griendt’s approach is also a refreshing change from the trend to use a deadpan aesthetic in portraiture regardless of subject and relevance.
There are some wonderful portraits, particular favourites being a vibrant image of Angel lighting Steven’s cigarette in a New York street, which could have fallen straight from the pages of an inspired fashion magazine spread. Steven is a riot of colours; of red, pink, yellow and pale blue in contrast to Angel’s muted grey and green. Jennifer from Philly is all attitude in Coney Island as she poses in a cutaway swimsuit oblivious to the fully-dressed boy behind her who has a cigarette behind his ear. The full impact of some of the double-page spreads, however, is compromised when the book is brand new. The soft-back book does not open out flat, until it has been opened repeatedly and become well-thumbed, resulting in the centre crease initially swallowing up key information. In some images this is less bothersome and in one – of Jasper with the two-tone flat-top hairstyle – it could be seen as a feature; his face and hair neatly separate into two halves down the centre.
Cigarettes have featured in numerous iconic images as well as in Magnum photographer Bruce Davidson’s Brooklyn Gang Project, which documented 1950s American teenagers in monochrome. Fast forward half a century and smoking has become a dirty word, which makes Smokin’ Boys, Smokin’ Girls all the more vital as a photographic document of youth culture around the globe. As such, it is sure to provide rich material, particularly from a cultural and social anthropological point of view, for decades to come. After all, with the recent ban on smoking in public places, van de Griendt’s colourful smoking girls and boys may soon disappear from public view like the gradual extinction of an exotic species.
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