Biography
Greenberg was born in Montreal, Quebec, and grew up in a suburb of Detroit. She graduated with honors in 1989 from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Photography and moved to New York City to pursue a career in photography. Greenberg moved to Los Angeles in 2000 where she met her husband Robert.
In 2007 Greenberg was selected by French Photo Magazine for their 40th anniversary issue to represent one of the 40 most important photographers. She has done commercial work for corporations such as Philip Morris, Microsoft, Polaroid, Dreamworks, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, MGM, Disney, Fox, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Smirnoff, MTV, Warner Bros., Sony Music, and Atlantic Records. Her photos have appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek, Wired, Fast Company, Entertainment Weekly and numerous other publications. Celebrities and CEOs who have used her head shots and portraits include Clint Eastwood, Glenn Close, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Jenkins.
Her artwork has been featured in Harper's, The New Yorker, The New Republic and several other publications. Her monkey series has been purchased by art collectors worldwide. Her work has been shown at CLAMPART in New York and Fahey/Klein in Los Angeles. In addition, her artwork has been exhibited in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Paris, France; Adelaide, Australia; San Francisco; Chicago; and various other cities.
Greenberg is credited by some within the commercial photography industry as having produced several unique styles that have since been emulated by other photographers. "Like LaChapelle and Avedon, Jill has pioneered a new style of photography, and her impact can be seen throughout the entertainment industry", the creative director of a Los Angeles creative agency told Brief magazine, with the publication itself characterizing her work as employing "distinctive ethereal backlighting." A president of NBC Entertainment Marketing who has employed Greenberg on a number of occasions due to what he terms her "distinct and innovative aesthetic" observed that "many other photographers follow her lead."
Greenberg herself has acknowledged having made particular use of digital post production, adapting the nickname "The Manipulator" early in her career due in part to her relatively early adoption of Photoshop, a product she has used since its release in 1990. Nonetheless, she told an interviewer in 2011 that some of what her fans believe to be post production is instead the result of close attention to lighting, merely supplemented with minor "flourishes" afterwards. Greenberg suggested in a 1998 New York Times article on female gamers that her affinity for technology came from her mother: "My mom was a math buff and a science major in college. ... In 1964, she became a COBOL programmer and helped support my father through med school. She used to write programs on keypunch cards for mainframes."
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