BETWEEN GIRLS
by Karen Marshall from New York, NY
In 1985 when I was a young photographer in New York City I began photographing a group of teenage girls. My intent was to look at the emotional bonding that happens between girls at age 16 and document the emblematic relationships that often develop at this time in their lives.
After being introduced to Molly Brover, a bright, exuberant 16-year-old high school junior, I was soon privy to Brover's ever-rotating group of girlfriends and spent time with the teenagers on a regular basis documenting the everyday rituals of their friendship.
Ten months later, Molly was hit by a car and killed while on vacation on Cape Cod. I realized that Molly would remain 17, while the rest of the girls would become women and that break in continuity inspired me to continue to document them in various ways over the years to come.
In 1990 I invited several of the women into a sound studio to record their reflections on time spent together as teenagers and on the loss of their friend four years before. A 12-minute audio piece emerged and soon what began as a black and white photography project evolved into a thirty-year meditation on friendship, expanding to include audio, video, ephemera, and a multi-layered exhibition installation.
As I continued to document these women as they evolved from girls into women and came into their own, it became clear that a project like this does not happen quickly. The spaces that define friendship and loss progress with time and so there was no rushing this.
Simultaneously media technology kept changing and the various ways I documented the women kept shifting. I created book dummy after book dummy, and at one point thought I was making a film until I realized that was not my intention. Many times during this process I was unclear about how the work would find its final resolve and when I would know it was complete. At times it felt like a giant pile of beautiful and meaningful material that had no clarity.
In 2015 when the women were 46 I had the opportunity to exhibit the project in its entirety, I decided that after 30 years, the work was complete. I spent 10 days crossing the country to photograph the five women who had shared their lives with me for thirty years for a final time. Two years later I began working on a book with Teun van der Heijden, a gifted photo book designer.
The goal of Between Girls has always been to weave numerous media together and create an articulate visual narrative and so I am excited to share Between Girls as a book, an object that viewers can hold in their hands, an experience that is both visceral and interactive.
This year Kehrer Verlag is publishing Between Girls. This limited edition book will include QR codes for the reader to access various media elements that are an integral part of the project.
In retrospect it is perfect timing. At a time when we are forced into self-isolation because of a global pandemic, the release of this book is fortuitous; a documentary about the importance of our connections to one another could not be more paramount.
To pre-order the book and support this project please go to the Kickstarter page.
