Growing up on Social Media – Lecture

What happens when likes, comparisons and social media shape our self-image? One day after the opening of her new exhibition Social Studies, photographer and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Lauren Greenfield offers insights into her work, her motivation and the topics that have shaped her artistic practice.

For decades, Greenfield has examined the ways culture and media influence our ideas of beauty, success and identity. From Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood to Girl Culture and Generation Wealth, and now Social Studies, she explores how these phenomena affect young people.

In her latest long-term project Social Studies, Lauren Greenfield explores what it means to grow up in the digital age through a radical experiment. Over the course of a year, she followed a group of teenagers from Los Angeles who shared their lives and digital worlds with her: their feeds, their texts, their posts, the images and messages they had never shown their parents.

During the lecture, Lauren Greenfield reflects on the stories and encounters behind her work and the making of Social Studies.

After the Q&A, joined by Ella, one of the protagonists of the project, you can purchase Lauren Greenfield’s books and have them signed.

About the artist

Lauren Greenfield studied visual anthropology at Harvard University and has spent three decades documenting American consumer culture, youth, and gender through photography, documentary film, and advertising. The New York Times has called her “America’s foremost visual chronicler of the plutocracy.”

Her six feature documentaries include THIN (2006, HBO), The Queen of Versailles (Sundance Directing Award, U.S. Documentary, 2012), Generation Wealth (Sundance premiere, Amazon Studios, 2018), The Kingmaker (Venice Film Festival, Showtime, 2019), and the five-part series Social Studies (FX / Disney+, 2024). Her photography monographs include Fast Forward (Knopf, 1997), Girl Culture (Chronicle, 2002), THIN (Chronicle, 2006), Generation Wealth (Phaidon, 2017), and The Queen of Versailles: An American Allegory (Lannoo, October 2026).

Greenfield’s photographs are held in the permanent collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the International Center of Photography, and the Harvard Art Museums.

Alongside her film and photography practice, Greenfield has directed award-winning advertising campaigns. The Always “#LikeAGirl” campaign won the Film Grand Prix at Cannes Lions and the Emmy for Outstanding Commercial and made Greenfield the first woman named “Most Awarded Director” by Ad Age. Her most-watched film, The Queen of Versailles, inspired a recent Broadway musical and is the subject of her latest monograph, The Queen of Versailles: An American Allegory (Lannoo, October 2026). It re-examines the story of a billionaire couple building America’s largest home as prologue to the Trumpian era.

Please be aware

Please note that photos, videos, and audio recordings will be taken during the event and may be used for marketing and communication purposes, including social media, website, press, and printed materials. By attending the event, you consent to the possible use and publication of such recordings.

If you do not wish to appear in any recordings, please speak to our team or the host on site.