This Italian photographer explores the experience of growing up in suburban Milan

In this exclusive photo story for SLEEK, Milan-based photographer Carmen Colombo teamed up with stylist Marianna Karathanasi to capture the wistful idyll of growing up in suburban Milan. The nostalgia-soaked images of local children are sentimental, harping back to ‘70s sun-lit neighbourhoods and old holiday snaps. Featuring a mix of fashion and documentary-style photography, the story employs a range of settings that symbolise the boundaries between childhood and adolescence. “Their parents’ homes are safe places — a fantasy scenario where they can play until they grow up, then leave to make new experiences and finally come back with a new self-awareness,” Colombo tells SLEEK. The children pose awkwardly, conveying the sense of uncertainty that we all experienced at this age and at the same time suggesting a refreshing lack of self-awareness.“They are not children anymore and not yet adolescents — they are crossing a sort of limbo at the end of which they will leave their childhood behind.”