Lauren Greenfield’s book is amazing. I saw the documentary on amazon fist, but the book in comparison seems even better, containing 1000s of pictures. The 2 hours of the documentary cannot fully mirror the depth of the texts accompanying the many pictures in the book. On the other hand, the documentary concentrated on a few people and gave fuller account of their individual stories.
The recommendation is to read the book and watch the documentary.
The book certainly passes as a coffee table book, but the content is much more difficult to digest. Whilst there is a slightly educational tone of “money does not bring happiness, but emptiness” throughout it all, no one should forget that money without values of another kind is a loose cannon on the human soul.
Lauren Greenfield spent most of her childhood in Los Angeles, California. When she embarked on a career as a photographer in the early 1990s, her native town and its influence on the USA and also the world was never far from her camera lens. What started as individual projects culminated in 2017 with the publication of “Generation Wealth”. Some of the protagonists had been interviewed repeatedly, which makes the documentary so valuable. One can follow the growth of the individual over time; what he/she made of the years. There is, by the way, an extensive biography of Lauren Greenfield at the end of the book.
When the book was published, Donald Trump became for the first time President of the USA, a fact that had been mentioned more than once in “Generation Wealth”. Donald Trump was seen as the epitome of that lifestyle. Now, when I write this, the second inauguration of Donald Trump is only days away.
The 1990s were the years that young people born in the end 1970s or 1980s became teenagers and young adults. The culture they had been growing up with, was showcased manifold by dozens of TV channels and the ascent of social media. Those were the years after Ronald Regan had been President of the USA and Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister of Great Britan. A conservative jolt had been rushing through many parts of the word during the 1980s, after the liberal 1960s and 1970s. A lot of the young people in Los Angeles had rich parents, and those who did not, often just wanted to seem rich as well. Money, more than anything else, defined what one was.
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s the new conservative capitalism was thriving, especially banking, hedge funds, and investment in real estate were copied worldwide even by countries that had never had anything to do with banking, like Iceland. Cheap consumer credits made the dream to come “from rags to riches” tangible for people earning far too little for such a lifestyle. Those hopes crashed in 2008 for many.
Lauren Greenfield gave people from Ireland, Iceland, Dubai and the USA a voice. One of the couples prominently featured are Jackie and David Siegel, who build a house called Versailles (in Florida). The house would/will be, once finished, the biggest house in the USA. The Versailles project was featured in another documentary of Lauren Greenfield. The ups and downs of the construction, real estate crisis and almost bankruptcy of the Siegels, are covered. The house has not been finished till today. The last quoted interview of David Siegel in “Generation Wealth” ends with the sensible words (page 322): “In order for us to have the American Dream, we need to quit spending money we don’t have”.
(You can see Jackie and 2 of her friends in the lower picture on the back cover of the book, when they all show their Versace handbags. From the dress style and the accessories they are the epitome of open wealth display, but not necessarily of elegance. The other picture shows Lil Jon, a rapper.)
The stories from Iceland are the most revealing. Iceland is famous for its breathtaking nature, towns without too much glamour and stories of characters of old like Erik the Red. I only went there years after the crash of the banking system in 2008, and all was back to normal, apart from the use of their hydropower and geothermal power for new industries. Most of the Icelanders lived from tourism or fishing. For some years though, almost everybody was a banker and due to very good conditions people from all over the world stored their money with Icelandic banks. When the system crashed the creditors lost their money, there was no bail out. This proved good in the long run, as afterwards strict controls of the banking system were established. Still, a lot of people lost their property and money. Good for a country when the people have strong roots and simply can go back to where they came from. The Icelanders became again fishermen or lived from tourism. In quite a few countries the same situation would have come (and did come) to a very different end.
The story of the lady pictured on the front cover of “Generation Wealth”, only called Ilona, is a hopeful example how fast the spending spree can turn to a more traditional dealing with wealth. She describes how she lived as a kid in the then Soviet Union in a small flat, like everybody else, and had a safe environment to play in. In the new Russia, the chance to make money arose, and at least her husband took the chance. A lot of money was gained, a lot of money was spent. Now, being quite comfortable with what has been achieved, the option to share some of the money with poorer people became realistic. One wonders how her life is today and if she still lives in Moscow.
Lauren Greenfields book “Generation Wealth” shows many facets of wealth and money. For those who newly acquire wealth, in the beginning it almost always means freedom. The freedom to be individualistic, to do what one always wanted, to express yourself. Be it through plastic surgery, dream homes, an incredible lifestyle. The way of gaining money is also a wide one, there are sex workers in the book, businessmen/women of every background and people who inherited.
Being grounded by something, be it family, values or other, is important on the way of becoming rich and even more so, when the dream came true. “Be careful what you wish for” is a quote VIP hostess Tiffany Masters gives (page 463). Money can never itself be the value.
All rights to the book belong to:
Greenfield, Lauren: Generation Wealth, 2017, first published by Phaidon Press Limited, London & New York, photographs and text by Lauren Greenfield, foreword by Juliet Schor, photographs edited with Trudy Wilner Stack, text edited with Susan Lynley Welsh, printed in China, ISBN: 9780714872124
Check also for the documentary of the same title “Generation Wealth”, available on amazon.