Images by Adrienne Salinger: No Parents Allowed

In the Nineteen Eighties and ’90s, Adrienne Salinger photographed American youngsters of their pure habitat: their bed room. Salinger was fascinated by the way in which these areas mirrored the personalities of their inhabitants. In an period earlier than smartphones and social media, youngsters used the partitions of their room to exhibit their good style in hair bands and hip-hop teams, commemorate their accomplishments, and assemble their id. These areas, Salinger wrote in her 1995 ebook, In My Room, have been “the repository for our memories and the expressions of our desires and self-image.”

Salinger’s ebook, reissued this month, options portraits of dozens of youngsters. The photographs seize an inflection level between childhood and adolescence: Her topics pose amongst stuffed animals and pinups, dolls and drug paraphernalia. In one picture, a lady named Ellen stands beside a neat bookshelf, clutching a violin. On the wall behind her is a poster of James Dean astride a motorbike—just under it, a brochure from Brown.

Most of the rooms Salinger visited—of wealthy and poor teenagers alike—have been illuminated by a single mild fixture on the heart of the ceiling. She introduced her personal studio lights, which might continuously blow a fuse. As she arrange her tools, she and her topics would speak, usually for hours. Then she would take {a photograph}, and the kids would see their room—and themselves—in a brand new mild.

Photos courtesy of Adrienne Salinger / D.A.P. This article seems within the September 2025 print version with the headline “No Parents Allowed.”