A new exhibition called ‘We Could Be Heroes’ is premiering at London’s Photographer’s Gallery and explores the past 100 years of youth culture from the streets of South London to the gritty back alleys of New York. The exhibition opens this Friday trying to provide a wide array of visual answers to the question: ‘What makes being young so exciting?’ Focussing on the post-war years – in which the term ‘teenagers’ came about – the group show features photography legends as Bruce Davidson, Ed van der Elsken, Bert Hardy, Karen Knorr and Olivier Richon, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Roger Mayne, Chris Steele-Perkins, Anders Petersen, Al Vandenberg, Weegee and Tom Wood as they chart the international development of youth culture over the period of the past 100 years as they lift a middle finger to the past and its traditions. While Davidson captures a Brooklyn gang of teenage dreamers inspired by Marlon Brando and James Dean, Knorr and Richon focus on the London punk scene to provide aesthetically thrilling images documenting the rambling symbolism of the subculture. Van der Elsken and Petersen on the other hand immortalise the confusion that’s part of experiencing newfound freedoms. Although the subjects aren’t bound by location, age or sartorial taste, they all have this in common: an unshakable rebellious spirit, a longing for freedom and a knack for exploring.

We Could Be Heroes is on show at London’s Photographers’ Gallery from February 6 – April 12, 2015.