Alice Mann’s photographs depict the glamour of South Africa’s promenade nights

This gallery is taken from the spring 2026 problem of Dazed. Buy a duplicate of the journal here.

For highschool college students in South Africa, promenade – or the “matric ball” – represents essentially the most aspirational ceremony of passage of their teenage years. More than only a commencement celebration, the occasion gestures towards maturity whereas additionally promising to fulfil a singular fantasy. “It’s this one night where you can show people exactly who you want to be. You can be anybody. They feel like celebrities,” explains photographer Alice Mann, whose newest photobook, The Night Is Young, presents poignant, life-affirming portraits from commencement dances at excessive colleges in Johannesburg, Pretoria and her birthplace of Cape Town.

Every element of clothes, hair and make-up is meticulously deliberate and executed. Police usually shut off roads surrounding colleges to make method for college students arriving for his or her red-carpet second. “One student arrived on a horse and cart,” says Mann, who shot the sequence between 2018 and 2023. “And there was another whose dad was in a motorcycle gang, so he drove her on the back of his bike, preceded by the whole gang.” It’s a chance to indulge within the sort of theatricality and glamour that isn’t a part of on a regular basis life. Mann’s portraits present the boys in sharp, usually flamboyant tailoring, whereas “some of the girls channel a Kardashian energy” and others “just want to be princesses”. One pupil, pictured beneath, opted for a extra fantastical look, arriving on the dance carrying elaborate angel wings. “It’s about making an absolute statement,” the photographer explains.

Moving between formal portraits and febrile post-dinner get together pictures, the place South African home music is “blasting” and decorum is discarded together with excessive heels, Mann’s footage distil the hopefulness and jubilation of a feverishly anticipated night. “The tension of the whole night is just released onto the dancefloor,” says the photographer. While promenade affords college students the possibility to enact a fantasy, it’s additionally grounded in a really actual sense of feat. “Having reached the final year of high school and knowing you’re going to graduate is massive,” says Mann. “You’ve made it; you didn’t drop out. You could be the first in your family to do that.”

Not each pupil who graduates from highschool can afford to attend their matric ball, as celebrations turn into ever extra “extra” due, Mann suspects, to the affect of social media. A guideline of The Night Is Young was to mirror and acknowledge the complexities and inequalities of up to date South Africa, however Mann wished to method this from a extra indirect – and optimistic – angle than she often sees in representations of the nation’s youth tradition. “It is still a place with a lot of divisions and gaps in terms of wealth, but this was a softer way of exploring that,” she explains. “Students feel like anything is possible on these nights; it’s very beautiful. The general feeling is one of so much hope and joy – they all feel their best and all their families are there to celebrate them. Capturing that energy was something I wanted to do, in terms of exploring South African imagery with more positive associations.”

The Night Is Young is out on March 12 by way of IDEA.