In a continuation of his personal work documenting the agony and ecstasy of youth — Alex Hodor-Lee gave i-D a lens into what the kids were doing this summer.

Alex’s process is immersive: he casts, photographs, and reports his own stories, collapsing the distance between subject and storyteller. The result is a body of work that unravels clichés and reframes youth culture as it really is — vibrant, chaotic, and tender.

What has Alex discovered? That despite the endless anxiety projected onto them by older generations — the post-9/11, social-media-raised cohort of “screen kids” — they are, in fact, doing just fine. They’re outside. They’ve got their own language, their own style codes, their own rituals. And Alex has the respect (and fluency) to translate it.

Alex roamed the city from Coney Island to Harlem, photographing and reporting on the kids who give New York its pulse — affirming that, if anything, they’re more than alright.