Ewen Spencer's Teenager pictures show the anguish and the excitement of young people going out to enjoy themselves and escape from the harsher realities of their home and street environments; the fears of where their lives might go; how things are going to work out for them. They are being ostentatious and taking risks.

Sometimes things go wrong, and they might embarrass themselves; usually they have a great time and can't wait to go and do it again. But it's only a cocoon for a short time, where they can relate to lots of other young people facing the same things in life, and mutually agreeing to ignore them for a few hours.