In photos: What it’s like to be young, fun and full of dreams

Gracie Brackstone’s Life’s a Parade (2023) was a joyful, chaotic photo book documenting her friendships, flatmates and nights out in Manchester. Made during a time of bereavement, Brackstone’s project was intended as much to inspire her younger sister in the wake of their mum’s death as it was to chronicle the emerging photographer’s daily life – a clarion call for better times ahead.

The Dazed Club member’s latest series, Shared Dreams, picks up when Life’s A Parade left off. “Life’s a Parade ended with a letter to my sister, encouraging her to have a parade too, after losing our mum,” she tells Dazed. “Shared Dreams is my next chapter, it’s living a life I dreamed about.” Despite life seeming to throw “every obstacle” at her and, after losing her job and having to leave her home in Manchester, it’s been a golden period in which her ambitions and friendships have been galvanised. Oftentimes forgoing food in favour of camera roll, Brackstone has continued to revel in her community of friends and creatives.

“Although the last six months have been quite surreal, I’ve been the most free I have ever been,” she explains. “I am so grateful for my friends because they really helped me during this time, letting me stay on their sofas, making me food – even if they had stolen it.” The portraits in her latest series tell the story of this picaresque life – the highs and the lows. “In the past few months, I have soaked up everything, dressed up all the time for no real reason, and had so many spontaneous nights and days.”

She tells us, “My community means so much to me and the idea of Shared Dreams stemmed from us planning our futures together. Everyone I’m friends with is creative to some degree. We all hear about each other’s dreams, we pray for them and work on them together. We all hope that it will be a knock-on effect, one of us gets an opportunity and the whole friendship group thrives.”

While some of the photographs in her latest book depict Brackstone realising some of her dreams (“Editorials, my first book launch, fashion week, a trip to Paris…”), the main narrative to emerge is of leaving her beloved Manchester to take her chances in London. “I’m not sure what part three has in store quite yet. It may predominantly be set in London, I think? I need to push myself to discover worlds beyond my own and what’s comfortable. The last two books have been about seeing the beauty in everyone around me, the next part should probably be about seeing the beauty in me.”

Visit the gallery above for a closer look.