Girls and boys: searching for the spirit of youth on the streets of Belarus

Coming-of-age stories tend to either cling to the present moment or look to an uncertain future. But Belarusian photographer Alexander Veledzimovich admits his obsession is with the past. The black-and-white portraits he takes with his Rolleiflex have a classical quality that places them outside the strictly contemporary: the casual viewer might place them in the 1980s or early 90s when they were in fact taken much more recently, between 2010 and 2013.

Through taking portraits of teenagers today Veledzimovich tries to evoke the feeling of his own adolescence a generation earlier.

“First of all, I observe from afar,” he says of his process. “I recognise some special details: jacket rivets, a bottle of Coca-Cola or round glasses in the style of John Lennon. I find my tribe. Like all of them, I cling to elusive youth. I look through the viewfinder at my own past.”