Publishers Weekly
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Photographer Carroll’s second entry in the Decades series (after The 1980s) is a striking portrait of a period of change and contradiction. The images home in on the era’s trends and transitions, including advances in CGI technology that made blockbuster movies look increasingly realistic (stills from movies like The Terminator appear alongside black-and-white shots of the Gulf War, whose grainy quality began to represent truth in a world of fakery). Technological progress and global devastation form sharp contrasts throughout, with heart-wrenching photographs of the Rwandan genocide juxtaposed against slick and colorful Apple and Windows advertisements. Changing ideas of female autonomy were also at play in an era that saw the rise of the supermodel—commemorated here with images of Kate Moss and Cindy Crawford—as well as the dawn of third-wave feminism, represented here with bold action shots of Madonna, the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill, and Queen Latifah. Meanwhile, bright-hued music videos and movies set in “creepy suburbia”—think Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands—marked a growing cynicism with the “vapidity” of the white picket fence American Dream. Throughout, poignant and provocative images bring the decade to life along with Carroll’s lively essays exploring the sense of possibility, chaos, and change that animated it. Readers will find it tough to look away. (Oct.)