Bunny Ranch
© Lauren GreenfieldThirty miles west of Reno, Nevada (one of two US states to legalize prostitution), at 69 Moonlite Road, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch is located at the intersection of desert and decadence. Amidst the barren landscape and dry Sierra Nevada peaks, on the grounds of the Bunny Ranch are a trampoline, a hot tub, a small fleet of golf carts, and, not infrequently, a pride of Ranch prostitutes bouncing, soaking, and gamboling about, wearing stilettos and fancy lingerie: always provocative, always ready for the walk-in customer. The girls assume working names like AirForce Amy, CoCo, Bunny Love, Alexis on Fire, Valentine, and Kandi Hart — erotically suggestive monickers that sometimes belie modest, unassuming backgrounds. Many girls at the brothel are married, have children, and studies in acting, law enforcement, or speech pathology; one references Shakespeare when articulating life on the Ranch. One girl in particular, Brooke Taylor, 27, embodies the incongruity between common perceptions of prostitutes, with the reality of their lives.
A Midwestern church-going college graduate who mowed lawns and scooped ice cream, Brooke was working paycheck to paycheck as a rehabilitation counselor for adults with developmental disabilities when she saw HBO’s reality show CatHouse, filmed on location at the BunnyRanch. Brooke hopped over right away. In the three years she’s been at the Ranch, she’s reached superlative status. She’s the star of the HBO show, earns as much as $100,000 per customer “party”, and has been dating Ranch owner Dennis Hof. She’s an advocate for legalized prostitution, adamantly defending its safety (the lowest HIV rate of any profession, thanks to state-regulated weekly health examinations) and career legitimacy — Brooke treats prostitution as a business, “pitching my goods to the CEO of a company, negotiating a price for my work”, and self-educates with marketing techniques, and, of course, the latest sex toys: “When I’m not having sex, I’m eating, sleeping, or masturbating.”
click to view the complete set in the archive
InstituteTM (collectively Institute Pictures, Institute Studios, & Institute Artist) is redefining how stories are produced and told in the 21st Century. Founded by Producer Frank Evers and Director/Visual Artist Lauren Greenfield, we are a multiplatform production company representing auteur-driven storytellers across commercials, photography, fine art, film, and technology — and producing original work across every screen that those stories live on. Our multiplatform expertise and established global relationships in entertainment, commercial, fine art, and journalism create unmatched reach and cross-pollination of creative work. A film commission informs a photography campaign; a fine art practice shapes a commercial; an editorial relationship opens a documentary. Few companies operate fluently across all of these worlds. Institute was built this way from the ground up.
Clients include: Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft/Xbox, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Nike, Adidas, Lululemon, Under Armour, Dove, Maybelline, Clinique, Ulta Beauty, Aesop, Vaseline, LEGO, Balenciaga, Dior, Tom Ford, Kenzo, Supreme, Van Cleef & Arpels, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Toyota, McLaren, Pennzoil, American Express, Chase, U.S. Bank, Burger King, Chobani, Corona, Pepsi, Nespresso, Lavazza, Velveeta, Airbnb, Four Seasons, Marriott, Instacart, eBay, JCPenney, Levi's, Swatch, Bang & Olufsen, Bayer, Pfizer, Genentech, EA, Planned Parenthood, Ad Council, and the United Nations. Editorial and publishing partners include: The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, TIME, Bloomberg, National Geographic, The Economist, Monocle, Le Monde, Stern, Sunday Times Magazine, Phaidon, Steidl, Abrams, Prestel, Chronicle, and Random House.
“Institute” is a registered trademark in the US, Europe, and United Kingdom. All rights reserved.