About Lauren
Next Director »Described by the New York Times as “America’s foremost visual chronicler of the plutocracy,” Lauren Greenfield is the founder of Institute and an award-winning filmmaker and photographer known for her groundbreaking work on consumerism, youth culture, and gender. Her documentary films Thin, The Queen of Versailles, Generation Wealth, and The Kingmaker have been lauded by critics, screened at numerous film festivals around the world, and earned accolades including Best Documentary Director Award at the Sundance Film Festival (Queen of Versailles), the Film Independent Spirit of Independence Award (Generation Wealth), the Critics’ Choice Award for Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary (The Kingmaker), and multiple Writers and Directors Guild nominations (Queen of Versailles, Generation Wealth, The Kingmaker).
Lauren’s iconic photography, which dissolves the traditional boundaries between photojournalism, fashion, documentary, and fine art, has received nearly every award in the industry. Photos from her monographs Fast Forward, Girl Culture, Thin, and Generation Wealth have been screened, published, and collected by leading cultural institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the J. Paul Getty Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Smithsonian, the International Center of Photography, and the Harvard Art Museum. Her retrospective exhibition Generation Wealth traveled to eight museums around the world including the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen.
Lauren has also applied her photographic vision to print advertising and commercials, creating innovative spots and print campaigns for major international brands including Apple, Amex, Asics, Bayer, Chevy, Coca-Cola, Gatorade, Goodyear, Hewlett Packard, Isuzu, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Nike, Pepsi Lifewtr, Tampax, Target, Toyota, US Bank, Wal-Mart, and XBox among others. Her record-breaking Super Bowl spot #LikeAGirl for Always is widely considered one of the top ads of all time. It swept the industry awards, receiving an Emmy, 14 Cannes Lions (including the Titanium Lion), seven Clios, five ADC Awards, eight D&AD pencils, and Best in Show at the AICP Awards. The ad was also added to the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) permanent collection, and earned Lauren the “Most Awarded Director” distinction by Ad Age and a spot on Adweek’s Creative 100 list. In 2019, she and her husband and producing partner Frank Evers founded Institute to address the advertising industry’s systemic lack of diversity. (Photo credit: Stein Heilmann)
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