There is an age when childhood has not quite disappeared, but something else has begun.
They are changing.
Not only in the obvious ways.
They are beginning to decide what they like.
What they believe.
What they will wear.
Who they want beside them.
How much of themselves they want the rest of us to see.
Some arrive confident.
Some would rather be almost anywhere else.
Most are somewhere between the two.
I am not looking for a version of them that appears older, more polished or more certain than they are.
I want the person who is here now.
They are not who they were. Not yet who they will be.
Teenagers are often more aware of the camera than younger children.
They know what photographs of people are supposed to look like.
They have seen thousands of them.
They may already have decided which side of their face they prefer, how they smile, or whether they want to smile at all.
I am interested in what happens when some of that falls away.
The laugh they did not plan.
The direct look.
The awkwardness.
The confidence that appears for a moment and then disappears again.
The seriousness that belongs entirely to this age.
A teenager does not need to perform being themselves.
Sometimes something comes into the portrait with them.
A guitar.
A skateboard.
A dog.
The clothes they wear constantly.
These things are not there to create a theme.
They are there because, right now, they matter.
A few years from now the guitar may still be part of their life.
The skateboard may not.
The clothes certainly won't be.
That is partly the point.
A portrait can hold more than a face.
It can hold something of a time.
Teenage years are not lived alone.
Brothers and sisters change alongside one another.
Friendships become important in different ways.
The child who once stood obediently beside a sibling for a photograph may now lean into them, laugh at them, tolerate them or pretend not to like them very much.
I photograph that too.
Not a perfect version of the relationship.
The relationship as it is.
Who they are beside can tell us something about who they are.
We photograph babies because they change so quickly.
We photograph children because childhood passes.
Teenagers change just as surely, but somehow this part is easier to miss.
Perhaps because they already look almost grown.
But almost grown is not grown.
The face will change.
The certainty will change.
The uncertainty will too.
And one day, when you know the adult they became, there is something extraordinary about being able to look back at the person who was still on the way there.
Teenagers do not need to love having their photograph taken.
They do not need to know how to pose.
They do not need to arrive confident.
They only need to arrive as they are.
I will take it from there.
This is them, becoming.
JOHANNESBURG PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER
One Moment. One Portrait. Forever
© 2005–2026 Bridget Corke Photography
Blairgowrie · Johannesburg · South Africa
International Master's in Portrait Photography
One of only two in Africa.