Photographer Julian Mährlein spent time meeting and taking pictures of London's young people. He feels inner city kids are often portrayed too negatively by the media, so wanted to capture them in a more honest light. He started the project in the wake of the 2011 riots, when this negative perception was at its height.
The portraits he took are collated in a new book: London Youth. See them below, alongside some quotes from the kids, simply speaking their minds.
Hana: "London is so diverse. I love the fact that you're only ever a train or bus ride away from somewhere completely different. From London I feel connected to everything: different cultures, places and people."
Jake: "One thing that annoys me is smug couples who go jogging together at six in the morning. I'll be walking to school, and I'll see this couple, and they'll be wearing expensive jogging bottoms and they'll have a thermos flask of coffee, and they'll actually be smiling as they run around the park. People like that don't deserve to live in Hackney. To be honest, they don't deserve to live."
Beren: "Money is the one thing you need to survive in this world. I'm 12, and already I think about money all the time. I worry about how I need good grades to get into a good university, a good degree to get a good job, a good job to get good money. I worry about it a lot."
Nina: "London is exciting, easy and so fun... but at times it can be scary and feel too complicated and big. It takes a while to get your head around, but once you do, trust me, it's so great."
Kai: "Art's not going to do nothing for you."
