In South Africa, a country with one of the world’s highest levels of social inequality and a rapidly growing youth population, the daily journey to and from school can carry significant physical and psychological challenges for many young people. The project, which evolved from 2023-2026, explores the complex environments they navigate—spaces where vulnerability, danger, friendship and freedom coexist. The resulting book is also dynamic and playful, bringing together analogue photography and a range of processes to examine and explore the formative experience of adolescence, and the ways in which place, relationships and memory shape who we become. Laura Pannack has been named the recipient of the inaugural (2025) Tom Stoddart Award for Excellence .