Memoir by photographic artist Jona Frank told in captivating stories and poignant images with a cast of actors, including Laura Dern, tells the story of one girl's suburban youth and deliverance.

While family stories are records of our lives, photographs often play a crucial role in giving us a sense of where we belong. They are proof of our beginnings and lay the groundwork for how our identities are constructed. “Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined” is a coming-of-age photographic memoir about artist Jona Frank’s upbringing in—and flight from—a suburban New Jersey household. Told through episodic texts and 200 evocative images, Frank illustrates her own account of a stifling childhood with a repressive mother, mentally ill brother, and overwhelming expectations.

Through this hybrid of personal essay and photography, Frank narrates the life of a young girl who spends her days dreaming of a friendship with Emily Dickinson, longing for Bruce Springsteen, and eschewing the rules of femininity. In the author’s own words, “Cherry Hill is, in a sense, an exercise in time travel. It’s a creation of the moments we are meant to leave behind. It’s a girl’s story about defining her place in her family, while also wanting to find her purpose outside of it.”

In Cherry Hill, Frank employs a cinematic approach to reconstruct these vivid scenes from her youth. Using elaborately dressed sets, era-specific wardrobes, and multiple actors to portray herself at different stages of her childhood, Frank refashions her memories into vibrant tableaux. Strikingly, Frank cast Academy Award-winning actor Laura Dern to play her strict and complicated mother in a performance as bravura as her film and television work.

A unique photographic storytelling project, Cherry Hill demonstrates how Frank outgrew the confines of her environment and suffocating domestic life by ultimately discovering art as the path to her personal fulfillment. An intimate self-portrait, Cherry Hill addresses what it takes to break free of convention and encourages readers to answer the question, “Who am I meant to be?”

ABOUT THE BOOK
 
ISBN: 978-1-58093-558-6
FORMAT: Hardcover
PRICE: $45 US/$60 CAN
PAGES: 368
TRIM: 6 ½ x 8 ¼ inches ILL: 200 color
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jona Frank is a photographic artist. She grew up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, the daughter of an accountant and homemaker. Cherry Hill is her fourth book. Her previous books include High School (2004), Right: Portraits from the Evangelical Ivy League (2008), and The Modern Kids (2016). Her films and photographs have been exhibited internationally and are held in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, SFMOMA, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, among others. She lives in Santa Monica, California, where she is beloved for her cherry pie.
 
An exhibition of Cherry Hill will open at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine in January 2022.

www.jonafrank.com @_jonafrank_
 
 ABOUT MONACELLI
As a leading publisher of illustrated books for twenty-five years, Monacelli has challenged the conventions of publishing to produce provocative, inspiring, and essential titles on architecture, visual art, interior design, landscape architecture, photography, and applied arts. In 2020, Monacelli became an imprint of Phaidon.
 
INSTAGRAM: @monacellipress