After 25 years of photographing the lives of the rich, the American photographer realized that money is like a drug and that rich people’s lives are full of suffering.
Someone once posed the question: “What is the standard of a happy life and how much wealth is considered enough for a prosperous life?”.
The question is not new, but for hundreds of years, it has remained unanswered. We live in an era with theories about “enough”, about the value of money or the meaning of life.
A VIP guest tosses hundreds of dollars like a “rain of money” on a Saturday night at the Marquee. This is a place that ranks as one of the top grossing nightclubs in Las Vegas, USA.
Human life is impermanent, money is ephemeral. However, despite being exposed to many myths about money, we still cannot escape the spiral of money: The pursuit of wealth is a never-ending journey, with a beginning and no end. now see the end point.
Simply put, the more money we have, the more dissatisfied we are and the more we want more . Then it is no longer a pleasure but a trap to fall into. Like American photographer Laura Greenfield, who has spent 25 years of her life delving deeper into that pain of the rich.
And then she discovered that money is also addictive
Greenfield has spent the past 25 years traveling the world, from Los Angeles to Moscow, Dubai or China to document the unprecedented global obsession with wealth and materialism.
The sweater IIona is wearing was designed by her friend Andrey Artyomov in her own colors. Artyomov is a famous fashionista among the wives of political “boss”.
Starting in Los Angeles in the early ’90s, Greenfield aspired to understand how teen culture was influenced by fame, status, and wealth. She photographed grand mansions, luxury hotels, lavish parties, beauty pageants, and meticulously handcrafted bags that symbolize wealth and success in America.
Lomo Bob, 49 – self-proclaimed king of Limo, wears 30 pounds of gold and wears a long fur coat designed by Mike Tyson. His fleet of Limousines, including a 100-foot Cadillac, is outfitted with crystal chandeliers, Jacuzzis, and strippers.
The obsession with wealth has also spread to Asian countries. Some emerging Asian groups are aiming for more aristocratic goals like buying yachts, taking up to $16,000 two-week courses to learn how to pronounce luxury brands, eating eggs. salted fish and imitate the Western aristocracy.
Xue Qiwen, 43, in her apartment in Shanghai. The room was decorated with furniture from her favorite Versace brand in 2005. In 1994, Xue started a company specializing in industrial cables and has since founded four more. She is also a member of golf clubs, with the price to be able to join these clubs up to $100,000.
When Greenfield first came to China, everyone in the family wanted to own Hermès and Louis Vuitton bags, but when she returned for the second time, these things were no longer special, the way they distinguished the nobility. It is an imitation of the Western aristocracy and commoners.
“If you have a Louis Vuitton bag – there will be thousands of other bags like you. But if you have a horse with a Hermès saddle, they will see you differently” – Sara Jane Ho, founder Sarita Academy in Beijing shared.
Sara Jane Ho, 28, founded Sarita Academy in Beijing in 2014. Ho’s 12-day course costs $16,000 (about VND 363 million), teaching skills to the wealthy, like how for folding towels, how to wear hats, a basic knowledge of expensive sports and the proper pronunciation of unfamiliar foreign brands, such as Hermès and Givenchy.
It seems that wealth has become an obsession for everyone, spreading throughout the US and Asian countries, to every corner, even at school. Everything smells of matter. Materialism really took over.
What Greenfield learns from the characters in her photographs is that: “The pursuit of wealth can never satisfy you” – as Sam Polk – a Wall Street trader admitted. Money is as addictive as anything else. Greed is bottomless and they never end.
The price to pay for wealth…
With the common features of Greenfield’s photographs of intimacy and pride, the characters in her photographs gradually reveal more than any other status, in addition to wealth and glamour. outside.
Those photos capture the price paid for all those flashy luxuries. It is the painful image of a patient undergoing plastic surgery, the shells of half-built houses abandoned during the economic downturn. And finally the never-satisfaction of the rich.
A Malibu teenager, photographed at a pool party three days after nose surgery shared: “Out of 10 close friends of mine, up to 6 people have plastic surgery.” Teenagers are under the illusion of the value of beauty. This is really dangerous because it can have many serious consequences later.
Lindsey, 18, at a party on June 4, 1993 in Calabasas, Calif., three days after nose surgery. Five of her close friends from Calabasas High School have also undergone plastic surgery.
Jay Jones, who lost a fortune of up to $500 million, laid off nearly 4,000 employees and was jailed for more than three years after being accused of conspiracy to commit fraud, or Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines was arrested. accused of stealing billions of dollars from state coffers. Is the price paid for wealth worth it?
Every cultural value seems to be upside down. People no longer know what the value of happiness is, they spend money indiscriminately, as long as it makes them feel a little more satisfied. But unfortunately, it’s a circle that never ends. They just feel more and more dissatisfied with themselves.
Sociologist and literary critic Juliet Schor sums it up in the book’s preface: “Be careful what you want.” There are teenagers who feel extremely lonely when their parents only care about money but do not give them time, there are children who accept to sacrifice their bodies to be present in nightclubs far away. flowers or criminals who try to deny the emptiness in their own lives. In the end we will realize the formidable temptation of materialism.
A hostess cleans the floor at a party hosted by whiskey maker Johnnie Walker aboard his 157-foot yacht at the Monaco Grand Prix in Monte Carlo, 2013.
In the dream of pursuing wealth, you will most likely miss out on many things: close relationships, many valuable experiences, sometimes you have to sacrifice your true passion to do a job that you don’t know. you do not like or you will even become blind and no longer distinguish what is the core value of life that you should pursue.
“Generation Wealth”, Greenfield’s latest series as a visual document to observe the rise and fall and the effects of the pursuit of wealth on people, especially teenagers. The work is currently on display at the Fahey Klein Gallery in Los Angeles.
The glorious career of Lauren Greenfield
Documentary photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield is considered a prominent screenwriter on youth culture, gender, and consumerism. Her photography, films and books are displayed in leading museums around the world.
Greenfield graduated from Harvard in 1987 and began her career as a National Geographic intern. Since then, her photographs have appeared regularly in The New York Times, Time, GQ and American Photo Magazine and have won numerous awards including the International Center for Infinity Photography, the Hasselblad Award, and more.
She lectures on photography, film, teen culture, and body image at museums and universities around the world and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Harvard University Office of the Arts.
Greenfield is rated as one of the 25 most influential photographers today. Her work is featured in the Getty Museum’s historical exhibition. Greenfield wanted to capture moments that could explore the relationship between girls’ inner lives and emotional development, the physical world, and the impact of culture. “Girl culture” then became a valuable visual document about American girls in the 21st century.