Adrienne Salinger: Teenagers in Their Bedrooms

Popular culture and fashion continually change and recycle. While specific objects of decor change over time, teenagers' bedrooms are still private sanctuaries, spaces for safely experimenting during a time in life when one is forming and expressing ever-evolving identities. This is part of coming-of-age. It is universal and timeless. The continued popularity of this work made in the 80s and 90s is curious. In some cases, the work evokes nostalgia, but not primarily so. Adrienne Salinger hears from current teenagers often; many send her pictures of their bedrooms today. Social media encourages users to endlessly “rebrand” their identities, creating idealized fantasies, striving for perfection. These photographs are not about perfection. They give voice to the contradictions of our identities. Bedrooms contain the past, the present, and the future. They are sites of continual transformation. Upon its release in 1995, Adrienne Salinger’s book “In My Room: Teenagers in Their Bedrooms” was an immediate success, selling nearly 24,000 copies in its first few years. Over the nearly 30 years since, and especially in the most recent decade of social media, the work's appeal has actually grown tremendously. Hundreds of print and online articles, interviews and features have been published and the work has been exhibited at museums all around the world.