For one another – Friends and community
On the way to adulthood children and young people seek more contact outside of the family. Friends and leisure time grow in importance: here they can savour the entire spectrum of youthful exuberance.
For children, friends are above all playmates with whom they spend their time, oblivious to all else, and with whom they cook up tricks and hang out. For young people, the meaning of friendship changes. In the group they continue to develop their identity and learn how to make friends and be there for one another – be it at the fair grounds or at home at a pyjama party.
With their friends girls and boys practice the poses and attitudes they imagine to be the specific roles of »femininity« and »masculinity«. In the group they play at staging their new adult roles – whether on bumper car rides or as stylish young women ready to go out on the town.
Proportionate to the degree in which the youthful phase of life has gained in importance in the last decades, we find more and more photographs capturing the experiences of the young people. The photos take in all kinds of situations and settings, often oriented on fashion and trends from magazines, TV programmes, music videos or Internet blogs, among other things. The camera is present at parties, dances, concerts or in the wild goings-on in the commune and serves to demonstrate that new liberties are being explored.
