Exploring what it’s like to be sixteen years old in Britain today

Easton conceived the project following his engagement with sixteen-year olds at the time of the Scottish Referendum, the first time that these young people were given the vote in the UK.

Building on the success of that work he invited 16 of the UK’s foremost documentary portrait photographers to collaborate with young people across the country to make a visual vox pop on what it means to be sixteen now. 

Working with photography, film, social media, audio recordings and writing, the project brings together more than a hundred young people from diverse communities across the United Kingdom, including Manchester and post-industrial areas of the North, as well as places further afield. 

The photographers open conversations with these young people about their hopes and fears, and who or what sustains them, giving prominence to voices rarely heard and explaining how their social background, personal histories, gender, beliefs, ethnicity, and location all might influence aspiration. 

In New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery, University of Salford, new work by Craig Easton, Jillian Edelstein, Christopher Nunn and Simon Roberts feature sixteen-year olds who live in the North of England. Two of the portraits by Easton will enter the University’s permanent art collection.In the Atrium of the building, Michelle Sank’s portraits focus on young people facing economic poverty and physical isolation in Cornwall.