Gillian Wearing was born in Birmingham in 1963; she went on to study at Goldsmiths College in London. She is a conceptual photographer/artist, in the early 90s she began putting together exhibitions. With her photography Wearing tried to challenge social stereotypes and assumptions of people. This exhibition/collection is called “signs” which links to the signs used in her photography. This refers to the concept that she got strangers to hold up signs expressing themselves or what they think people think of them which often challenged popular stereotypes about certain groups of people.
In this photograph the teenagers are holding up a sign with “we are the Hardcore” which was used to connote how people think that young teenagers think of themselves, this is because they are wearing leather jackets and smoking. This is a stereotype often given to teenagers as they are seen to think of themselves as better than they are. This also may be used to connote how the teenagers actually see themselves and they think smoking is cool and “hardcore”. In this photograph Wearing used quite simple photography techniques, this is because these types of shoots aren’t planned and are very spontaneous.