Ctrl+Z
Adolescence, Identity, and the Struggle of Becoming in a World at War
Audio-Visual, Ctrl+Z, 2025
Duration: 2:36 min (Pitch sample contains only first 40 seconds)
Excerpts from conversations with teenagers, written in their own handwriting and spoken in their own voices - a collective inner monologue of Gen Z
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My name is Sharon Eilon, and I am a documentary photographer based in Israel. After years of focusing my lens outward, documenting communities around the world, I found myself turning inward, toward the space I know most intimately: my home. As a mother to teenagers, I’ve been navigating a deeply personal journey marked by love, confusion, pride, and vulnerability. One of my children began expressing their gender identity in ways that challenged my assumptions and asked me to grow alongside them. This tender and confusing experience became the catalyst for Ctrl+Z, a long-term documentary exploration of Gen Z’s inner worlds. What began as a mother’s quiet reckoning became a visual inquiry into a generation in flux - their identities, uncertainties, and struggles to define themselves in a world that is both hyper-connected and deeply unstable.
This instability is not only digital or emotional; it is physical, geographical, and political. Many of these young people are coming of age in regions shaped by conflict, war, and the threat of violence. Whether in Israel or beyond, adolescence in a conflict zone brings its own emotional vocabulary: fear, vigilance, disillusionment, and a deep yearning for safety. In these contexts, the personal is inevitably political, and the quest for gender identity becomes entangled with questions of survival and belonging. Their sense of self is shaped not only by hormones or social media but by red alert sirens, fear, devastating headlines, and a constant backdrop of crisis. How do you discover who you are when the world around you feels insane?
For today’s youth, the pressures come from multiple directions - not only from the instability of conflict zones, but also from the relentless demands of the digital world. These external realities shape their inner lives in complex and overlapping ways. This intersection became the heart of my work. Through the lives of my children and their friends, using photography and personal conversations, I’ve been exploring how Gen Z navigates identity, belonging, and transformation. Born roughly between 1997 and 2012, this generation is immersed in technology, with smartphones and social media shaping how they connect, express, and see themselves from an early age. But it’s not just about tech. It’s about how digital life becomes emotional life, how online performance intersects with real anxiety and the urge for authenticity.
Gen Z resists easy definitions. They reject traditional binaries around gender, politics, and identity, and seek more fluid, expansive ways of being. In their conversations, I hear a longing for honesty and emotional transparency. They speak openly about mental health and embrace therapy not as a trend, but as a survival tool. At the same time, they carry a heavy weight: growing up in the shadow of climate crisis, economic instability, political unrest, military conflict, and the aftermath of a global pandemic. For many - especially those living in conflict zones - everyday adolescent anxieties are intensified by constant threats, deepening mental health challenges and making resilience both more difficult and more urgent. In Israel, this pressure is amplified by the reality that military service is mandatory at age 18 for all citizens, making the transition to adulthood especially stressful and complex. Under these conditions, identity becomes a vital anchor, a way to maintain a sense of self amid daily chaos and uncertainty.
Ctrl+Z is as much about their coming of age as it is about my own evolution as a mother and photographer. It’s about witnessing transformation - not just theirs, but mine too - as they navigate the unsteady terrain of adolescence, no longer children, not yet adults. In trying to understand them, I find myself unlearning and relearning, undoing assumptions and making space for new truths. This is a story told through a mother’s compassionate gaze, bearing witness to the growing pains of a generation finding its voice in the midst of chaos.
NOTE:
This pitch is confidential and intended for editorial review only. Full-res images available upon request.