Lifestyles Of The Young And Privileged
THE FACES ARE YOUNG--INNOCENT, yet-unstamped with the deep markings of well-formed identities. But the settings are sophisticated, the belongings carefully chosen. What to make of a teen-ager in a designer dress? A child at an extravagant party or amid tasteful opulence?
In the photographs collected here, Los Angeles photographer Lauren Greenfield meditates on the question: “What is it like to grow up rich in L. A.?” Greenfield, 26, who spent her junior and senior years of high school at a private school, returned last spring after years of focusing on issues of class and social status in photo projects on the French aristocracy and Mayan culture. Much of what she found here felt familiar. In her own school days, as a child of college professors--rich enough to pay the tuition but nowhere near as wealthy as many of her classmates--”the clique of rich kids dominated, influenced campus life. The material pressures created an oppressive atmosphere. Oh, I was socially active--developed close friendships--but I felt like an outsider.”
High school redux was a reintroduction to life amid the best money can buy. “Kids grow up so fast in L. A.,” Greenfield says. “They have so much independence. Parentless independence is almost revered in that atmosphere. Some parents think they can solve a problem with their kids by just throwing money at it.”
Longtime relationships with ex-classmates gave her entree to the rituals--proms, bar and bat mitzvahs, parties--of life in the private-school set, and she recorded interviews with some of her subjects, ages 13 to 18 (some of whom asked not to be identified by name). Consciousness of status, that enduring teen obsession, is dominant here. “There are about three different major cliques . . . popular, medium and geek. I’m in medium,” is one student’s self-assessment.
“The cliques in my grade are . . . the rich (clique) that shop at Fred Segal,” says another. “They have parents in the (entertainment) business, you know. . . . Then there is the clique that sits around and criticizes everybody--like, ‘Oh my God, she bought her clothes for so much money.’ ”
Awareness of themselves as “haves” in a city of have-nots is acute. “Growing up in L. A. is hell . . . not a good environment,” says one boy. “I hate how we have homeless people starving on the streets.”
“I don’t think parents realize the effect they have on the kids--giving them a lot of freedom with money,” says Greenfield, whose photos are intended as a lens, and as a reflection.