True Photo Journal is a brand new, independent publication that’s picking through the portfolios of our favourite established and yet-to-be-discovered names in photography. Headed up by creative director Peter Hughes and managing editor Gemma Jones, the publication and its subsequent website are giving visionaries a space on which to show their unseen work. “With True, we wanted to create a platform for photographers to publish personal work that wouldn't fit into the usual editorial formats they work within,” says Hughes, adding, “The photographers in issue one are from various worldwide locations, with different levels of experience and varied ways of working – together we feel they represent an exciting cross section of photography today.”

For their launch, True Photo Journal has brought together talents like Annemarieke van Drimmelen, Vinca Petersen and Charlotte Wales, the latter whose series we publish here. Taken at the Feathers Charity Ball at London’s Ministry of Sound – an event Wales used to attend when she was younger, she says, “The Ball was a very important event for me in terms of identity and appearance. It comes at a time when you first start experimenting with makeup and fashion.” The photos feature teens, aged 13-15 years-old, all on the edge of their own burgeoning adolescence. “An element I find interesting is that one's identity isn’t fully established so capturing that becomes more complex,” Wales explains about her interest in photographing young people, adding, “There’s often an intriguing mixture of honesty and an attempt to present one’s self as who one feels one ‘should’ be.”

The first issue of True Photo Journal is available now, follow them on Instagram to see more. To see further work from Wales, click here