Lauren Greenfield

Lauren Greenfield
Born	1966 Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Occupation	Film director, artist
Website
http://www.laurengreenfield.com/

Lauren Greenfield is an American artist, documentary photographer, and documentary filmmaker. She has published three photographic monographs, directed four documentary films, exhibited in museums, and published in magazines and other publications.^[1]

In January 2012, Greenfield was awarded the Sundance Film Festival Directing Award, US Documentary 2012^[2] for her feature documentary film, The Queen of Versailles. In 2003, American PHOTO Magazine named her one of the "The 25 Most Important Photographers Now". In April 2005, she shared the third spot of the "100 Most Important People in Photography", again in American Photo Magazine.^[3] She has received many photography awards and grants, including the Art Directors Club Gold Cube for Photography,^[4] National Geographic Grant, the ICP Infinity Award for Young Photographer (1996), a Hasselblad Foundation Grant, the NPPA Community Awareness Award, and the People's Choice Award at the Moscow Biennial.

She is married to Frank Evers,^[5] with whom she has two sons, and they reside in Venice, California.^{[citation needed]}

Photography

Greenfield graduated from Harvard University in 1987 with a B.A., majoring in Visual and Environmental Studies.^[6] Her Senior Thesis photography project on the French Aristocracy was called "Survivors of the French Revolution".^[7] This work helped kick start her career as an intern for National Geographic Magazine. A subsequent grant from National Geographic provided financial support towards her debut monograph, "Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood" (Knopf 1997).^[8] Five years after the release of "Fast Forward", Greenfield produced a second major body of work about the self-esteem crisis amongst American women, entitled "Girl Culture",^[9] which has been reprinted five times.^{[citation needed]}

Greenfield's photographs have been regularly published in the The New Yorker, New York Magazine, New York Times Magazine, The Sunday Times Magazine, Stern, The Guardian, Le Monde, Paris Match, D - La Repubblica, Time, Vanity Fair, People, National Geographic, ELLE, Harper's, Harper's Bazaar, and Marie Claire.^{[citation needed]}

Museums and exhibitions

Her photography, including entire bodies of work like "Fast Forward", "Girl Culture", and "THIN", is in many major collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the J. Paul Getty Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the International Center of Photography, the Center for Creative Photography, the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), the Harvard University Archive, the Smith College Museum of Art, the Clinton Library, and the French Ministry of Culture.^{[citation needed]}

Alongside her books, "Fast Forward", "Girl Culture", and "THIN", Greenfield produced three large-scale traveling exhibitions with the same names, which have been seen in museums and cultural institutions around the world.^{[citation needed]}

Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood

In concert with the publication of her debut monograph, "Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood" (Knopf 1997).,^[10] her first major show, "Fast Forward" had its US debut at the International Center for Photography (ICP) on April 25, 1997 and was extended two additional months due to high attendance and critical acclaim (April 25 - September 7, 1997). The show has exhibited in France, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia and a number of cultural venues in North America.^[11]

Girl Culture

The success of her second monograph "Girl Culture"(Chronicle Books, 2002),^[12] and the accompanying show (same name) helped to cement her worldwide reputation as documentary photographer. The book was reprinted five times by Chronicle Books and the show was exhibited at more than 29 venues around the world (France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and USA).^[13]

THIN

Her third major exhibition, THIN, accompanied both a feature length documentary film, Thin (film) (HBO, 2006), and a published photographic book, THIN (Chronicle Books, 2006).^[14] The exhibition debuted at The Women's Museum in Dallas, Texas and continued to exhibit through 2010.^[15]

The Annenberg Space for Photography

In March 2009, Greenfield was chosen to be a Featured Photographer^[16] in the inaugural exhibition at The Annenberg Space for Photography, “L8S ANG3LES”.^[17]

In May 2011, Greenfield received the honor of being the only photographer to be chosen twice as a Featured Artist at The Annenberg Space for Photography, as part of its exhibition, "Beauty CULTure" (Los Angeles, May 21 - November 26, 2011), as one of only four Featured Photographers.^[18] Greenfield was also commissioned by The Annenberg Space for Photography to direct a 30 minute documentary film about the subject of the exhibition. The resultant film forms the centerpiece of the exhibition.^[19] Attendance by the public to the "Beauty CULTure" exhibition exceeded previous records.^{[citation needed]} In October 2011, the exhibition received the Lucie Award for Curator(Kohle Yohannan)/Exhibition of the Year.^[20]

Getty Museum

From June to November 2010, a collection of her photography from "Fast Forward" and "Girl Culture" was featured in "Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography Since the Sixties", a record-breaking photographic photographic exhibition at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, curated by Brett Abbott.^[21] In October 2010, the exhibition received the Lucie Award for Curator(Brett Abbott)/Exhibition of the Year.^[22]

Filmography

Undergraduate years

From September 1985 to May 1986, while still an undergraduate at Harvard, Greenfield traveled around the world on a nine-month long program created by the International Honors Program, entitled "Film Study and Anthropology." This experience exposed her to anthropological and documentary film-making in France, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, India, Australia and Japan. In a 2012 interview with Sara Melson (for Harvardwood.com), Greenfield was quoted as saying "We watched many indigenous films, and we met with amazing directors. It was on that trip that I realized my calling. I wasn't sure if it would be sociology, film, photography, or anthropology, but looking at culture was my calling. When I got back to Harvard, I switched my major from Social Studies to Visual Studies. I soon realized that theory wasn't my medium, and I moved toward filmmaking and photography.".^[23][24] At Harvard, Greenfield continued her film-making studies under the tutelage of established documentary filmmaker, Robb Moss.^[25][26] In 1988, she co-directed a 25 minute film, entitled "Once You're In" (1988), about Irish illegal immigrants living in Boston.^[27]

THIN (HBO)

Ms. Greenfield has also directed a feature-length documentary for HBO entitled THIN (see Thin (film)),^[28] and has published an accompanying book with the same title.^[29] This feature documentary film was selected for the Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. In September 2006, Greenfield received the prestigious John Grierson Award for director of the best feature-length documentary at the London Film Festival 2006. This film also picked up the Grand Jury Prize at the Independent Film Festival of Boston, the Newport International Film Festival, and the Jackson Hole Film Festival. She also received an 2007 EMMY nomination for Best Director of Non-Fiction programming for the film, THIN (see Thin (film)).^[30]

kids+money

Greenfield's follow-up short film, "kids + money",^[31] was selected as one of the top five nonfiction shorts in the world by Cinema Eye Honors 2009.^[32] The short also won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the AFI Film Festival 2007, the Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2008 Ann Arbor Film Festival, the Gold Plaque, Documentary:Social/Political from The Hugo Television Awards 2008, and Best Documentary Short at Kids First Film Festival 2008. "kids + money" was also selected into the Official Shorts Program at the Sundance Film Festival (January 2008). The 32 minute film includes interviews with Los Angeles teenagers on the subject of money and how it affects their lives. HBO licensed North American broadcast rights to "kids + money", and the film has been distributed to major broadcasters and cable networks internationally.^{[citation needed]}

Beauty CULTure (The Annenberg Space for Photography)

In February 2011, the Annenberg Space for Photography commissioned Greenfield to direct a short documentary film, "Beauty CULTure", to make up the central focus of this record-setting^[33] "Beauty CULTure" exhibition (May - November 2011).^[34] Shot in Paris, New York and Los Angeles, this 30 minute film is a critical examination of "...beauty in popular culture, the narrowing definition of beauty in contemporary society, and the influence of media messages on the female body image".^[35]

The Queen of Versailles

In January 2012, Lauren Greenfield received the Sundance Film Festival's Directing Award, US Documentary 2012^[36] for her documentary feature film, entitled The Queen of Versailles, which was released theatrically in 2012.^[37] Previously, The Queen of Versailles was selected for the U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival 2012 (The world premieres of 16 American documentary films).^[38] The Queen of Versailles was further honored by being selected to be the opening night documentary film for the Sundance Film Festival.^[39] The film was acquired by Magnolia Pictures on the first day of the festival.^[40] Also in 2012, she was awarded the Grand Jury Prize from the Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFFDOCS),^[41] a second Best Director Award from the RiverRun Film Festival,^[42] the Special Jury Documentary Feature prize from the deadCenter Film Festival.^[43] On October 22, 2012, The Queen of Versailles was nominated for Best Documentary Film, 2012 by the International Documentary Association (IDA).^[44] According to PBS/POV, The Queen of Versailles was ranked #2 of the Top 10 Documentaries of 2012, based on awards, nominations and other ranking criteria.^[45] In January 2013, Greenfield was nominated by the Directors Guild of America (DGA) for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries for the year 2012.^[46]

On January 24, 2013, Lauren Greenfield won a lawsuit brought by the film's main subject David Siegel.^[47] Siegel claimed Greenfield had not obtained a proper release from the subjects of the film, in particular David Siegel and Westgate Resorts. The judge supported Greenfield's position.^[48]

Bibliography

• THIN (Chronicle Books, 2006)
• Girl Culture (Chronicle Books, 2002)
• Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood (Hard cover Knopf, 1997; soft cover Chronicle Books 2002)

Filmography

• The Queen of Versailles Produced by Evergreen Pictures. US Theatrical release by Magnolia Pictures in July 2012.^[49]
• Beauty CULTure (Commissioned by The Annenberg Space for Photography, produced by Evergreen Pictures. Launched in 2011),^[50]
• kids + money (Commissioned by The New York Times and produced by Evergreen Pictures. Broadcast on HBO in 2008)
• THIN (Commissioned by HBO for broadcast, 2006)

References

External links

• Lauren Greenfield's Official Website
• Lauren Greenfield's artist page on INSTITUTE for Artist Management
• Lauren Greenfield Video Interview for Annenberg Center For Photography
• Lauren Greenfield at the Internet Movie Database
• kids+money Official Website
• Five In Focus: Lauren Greenfield - Greenfield picks five films that have influenced her photographic style
• Chelsea Films: Lauren Greenfield's Commercial TV Work
• Stockland Martel: Lauren Greenfield's commercial print work
• Lauren Greenfield on her photo essay "Foreclosure Alley"