Photographer Lauren Greenfield has been documenting the shift in values and in the American Dream for the last 25 years. Her series Generation Wealth provides and insightful investigation into the pursuit of wealth, and its material trappings and elusive promises of happiness, and how it has evolved since the early 1990s.
Greenfield reveals stories of students, single parents, and families overwhelmed by crushing debt, yet determined to purchase luxury goods and experiences far beyond their reach. The series was primarily focused on American stories but also includes perspectives from Ireland, Iceland, the United Arab Emirates, China and Russia.
The visual record and thematic investigation of wealth obsession features over 200 photographs, candid interviews, and documentary film footage. Weaving together stories about affluence, beauty, body image, competition, corruption, fantasy, and excess, Greenfield’s project questions the distance between value and commodity in a globalized consumerist culture.
“This is about the desire for wealth and how that has become a driving force—and at the same time an increasingly unrealistic goal—for individuals from all classes of society,” says Greenfield.
Generation Wealth, orginally shown at the Annenberg Space for Photography, is currently on exhibit at ICP Museum through Jan. 7, 2018 and was recently published through Phaidon.
Here’s a look at the series below.
“Oscar treatment” for a prom photo shoot take a limo to the event with their dates, Culver City, California, 2001. (Lauren Greenfield/INSTITUTE)
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