Andrea Meislin Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Transition, Lillian Birnbaum’s first solo exhibition with the Gallery and in the United States. The exhibition will be accompanied by the monograph of the same name published by Hatje Cantz and including an essay by the art historian Doris von Drathen in conversation with Lillian Birnbaum. An opening reception for the artist will be held on June 18th from 6 – 8 pm.

In creating the Transition body of work, Lillian Birnbaum spent a period of several years observing a group of young girls. She was able to photograph seven friends and their delicate, at times demanding, often joyful metamorphosis from childhood into early womanhood without ever imposing herself or her camera. In doing so, Birnbaum succeeded in erasing the notion of being “in front of” or “behind” the camera, working in a prolonged moment of self-abandonment and with the blind eye of the artist.

Birnbaum’s work seeks to depict moments at a threshold—between “no longer” and “not yet” in the life of a girl, just prior to the realization that her feminine seductiveness may one day actually curb her freedom as an independent individual. Soon, she will begin mirroring her womanhood in how others view her. As Birnbaum explains, “I was curious whether it is possible to use photography to catch a glimpse of this transition. The slow, almost imperceptible switch from one state of being to another; the metamorphosis that brings forth a completely new being.”

Transition opens the gate to new worlds of images—girls behind windows, in front of mirrors, covered with thick layers of cream or wearing a wig, swimming in a lake in the summer, running through the woods, sprawling on meadows in bloom, climbing trees, emerging from the water, and pulling themselves up onto a jetty. Birnbaum specifically approached the project not from a documentary stance, but rather seeking to “show these girls in a kind of intermediate space… part fantasy, part reality.”

Lillian Birnbaum was born in New York City. She grew up in Vienna, Austria, and lives in Paris. She started her career as a photographer for magazines in Europe and the United States. Her work has been exhibited internationally for over fifteen years and her photographs are in private and public collections in Europe as well as in the United States. She has also worked in the film industry as an executive producer; most recently she co-directed the documentary film on legendary composer and conductor André Previn, A Bridge Between Two Worlds.