Generation Wealth is my 25-year visual history of our growing
obsession with wealth. Weaving 25 years of work into a meta-
narrative, I have tried to explore a consumer appetite
unprecedented in human history. Keeping up with the Joneses
has become Keeping Up with the Kardashians as the
“aspirational gap” between what we want and what we can
afford has dramatically widened. My journey starts in Los
Angeles and spreads across America and beyond, as I endeavor
to document how we export the values of materialism, celebrity
culture, and social status to every corner of the globe through
photographs and interviews with students, single parents, and
families overwhelmed by crushing debt, yet determined to
purchase luxury houses, cars, and clothing. We visit homes and
observe rituals of the international elite and the A-list
celebrities from reality TV and social media, the same
influencers who shape our desires and sense of self.
