Factory International and Football Beyond Borders worked with 170 young people over three weeks, across the five schools. With a brief set by Manchester-based photographer Alina Akbar, young people had the opportunity to learn and apply skills in photography while reflecting on identity and self-expression.

My Stomping Ground is a collaborative project between the WOW Foundation, Football Beyond Borders and photographer Alina Akbar, developed and delivered by Factory International's Creative Learning Team.

“My Stomping Ground came from the ambition for young people across all of the schools to feel they can occupy space within the parameters they spend so much of their time treading. We often don't think of the school grounds as ours and the life we bring to them as well as the creativity we can generate using only what's available. Without the cloud of authority, I wanted to encourage boldness, co-creation with peers and an opportunity to begin to develop their ideas. With an encouragement for the young artists to see the images presented in a book as their personal work in a world where we often only consider phone images ours if we appear in them”  – Alina Akbar

Photo by Layan.