They journeyed to the desert emirate of Dubai by the tens of thousands. Laborers from small towns on the Indian subcontinent and white-collar executives from the capitals of Europe. They came seeking fortune, and they built a modern city unlike any the world had ever seen: a city with the world’s largest tower, an indoor ski slope and a honeymoon suite with a live whale shark in the window.

A city where anything was possible. Sand too hot? Then build a beach with underground refrigeration.

As the orgy of building ground to a halt earlier this year, the photographer Lauren Greenfield set out to tell the story of Dubai and the foreign workers who make up most of its population.

“I call the story an improbable fairy tale,” Ms. Greenfield said. “Anything that could be fantasized could be built. It really was the land of opportunity. It’s more Las Vegas than Las Vegas.”

At first glance, Dubai might seem an odd place to find Ms. Greenfield. She is best known for powerful photographs and films that explore the corrosive effect of modern consumer culture on American teenage girls, and also for her disquieting images of women with eating disorders.

But Dubai offered Ms. Greenfield, 43, the opportunity to further explore wealth and the effects of unbridled materialism. So after several months of research, she spent two weeks photographing there.

She photographed Plastik, a flamboyant club that bills itself “Exclusively For The Filthy Rich And Aesthetically Perfect,” and out-of-work foreigners afraid of being thrown into debtors’ prison. There were new cars abandoned by fleeing expatriates and three-year-old housing developments being torn down to make room for even newer housing developments.

Raised in Los Angeles, Ms. Greenfield studied visual anthropology at Harvard and then worked as an intern at National Geographic. She has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Time and Elle. Her books, “ Fast Forward,” “Girl Culture,” and “Thin,” have been critically acclaimed.

Ms. Greenfield’s feature-length documentary, “Thin,” was broadcast on HBO and earned her an Emmy nomination. Her subsequent short documentary, “Kids + Money,” was originally made for The New York Times Magazine, then expanded and also shown on HBO. Ms. Greenfield is represented by the Institute for Artist Management, which she recently cofounded with her husband, Frank Evers. They live in Venice, Calif.

The housing boom and subsequent bust in the United States have been a continuing subject for Ms. Greenfield, as seen in “Foreclosure: Death of the American Dream.” Some of the same forces are at work in Dubai.

“Dubai is a cautionary tale in the same way as the foreclosure crisis — which I photographed — was,” Ms. Greenfield said last weekend, as the financial crisis in Dubai unfolded. “Dubai was this miracle of development with minimal planning and no infrastructure.”

Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper, is still under construction, overlooking artificial islands shaped like palm trees. The tower is a useful symbol for considering Dubai. Is it the Tower of Babel? Is it Icarus, flying too close to the sun? It’s unclear whether this crisis will simply be a pause in Dubai’s ascent or whether Dubai’s story will itself become a cautionary tale of mythical dimensions.