Gen Z Photographers Take Center Stage in New Exhibition

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Ziyu Wang, Lads, 2023, from the series Go Get’Em Boy | © Ziyu Wang

A new exhibition spotlights Gen Z photographers, exploring the distinctive themes and perspectives that define their generation’s creativity.

Running until February 2026, Gen Z: Shaping a New Gaze, an exhibition at the Photo Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, brings together 66 photographers born between the mid-1990s and 2010 from around the world. The exhibition highlights how this generation questions norms, challenges conventions, and redefines its place in a rapidly changing world.

A person wearing traditional Andean clothing and a colorful hat uses a virtual reality headset outdoors, standing against a bright sky and natural landscape.

Four young people stand close together in a bathroom, looking into a mirror. One applies makeup, while another takes a photo with a camera. Towels are stacked on a shelf to the right, and the scene is warmly lit.

A mirror on the floor reflects a woman draped in flowing black fabric, with part of the fabric billowing upward; her bare legs extend from behind the mirror on a concrete surface against a plain wall.

Through intimate stories, multiple identities, reinvented family ties, and a sensitive exploration of the body and gender, the exhibition reveals how Gen Z gives voice to a multiplicity of perspectives. The artists assert their need for representation and their desire to speak out in an unstable global context.

Four cheerleaders in white uniforms lift another cheerleader in black high into the air on a football field, with empty bleachers and a cloudy sky in the background. The airborne cheerleader wears a yellow bow and smiles.

A person wearing a gold helmet, blue feathered wings, and "Barbie" underwear stands in jeans on a rooftop surrounded by smoke, holding a large white flag with buildings in the background.

A person in a yellow outfit floats on their back in a swimming pool, with water rippling around them and their face partially above the water’s surface.

“I certainly do not want to claim that you can come in and understand the generation with this exhibition. That is definitely not the case,” Co-curator Hannah Pröbsting says in an interview with Dazed. “But we do feel that the people who don’t expect to be moved are moved. And I think if there’s one thing that I want people to take away, from a photography point of view, it’s that this generation has complete agency over telling their own story.”

A smiling person with long hair, gold-painted face, and various tattoos poses in a bikini in front of a painting of a galloping brown horse in a grassy field under a blue sky with clouds.

A close-up of a person's face reflected in a small mirror above a mini bathtub with floral decoration, set against wallpaper with yellow duck illustrations.

The exhibition offers an immersive look at the issues shaping Generation Z through photography, structured around four thematic sections. Mapping a Sense of Belonging explores the home as a foundation of identity, examining archives, memories, inherited traumas, and new forms of cohabitation. Shifting Realities addresses political, social, and environmental upheaval, reflecting themes of exile, instability, and resilience. Beyond the Mirror presents the body as a space of transformation, with artists questioning gender norms and exploring emotions, mental health, and inner life. Finally, Multiplying Perspectives examines race, history, and culture, showing how Gen Z photographers reclaim their narratives, challenge dominant representations, and propose new visual languages.

Image credits: All photos courtesy of Photo Elysée.

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