Adolescents’ future orientation develops throughout a process of multiple interactions and encompasses important developmental assets, such as creating plans and expectations for the future. At the same time, future orientation can also be regarded as adolescents’ perception of possibilities and opportunities. The experience of war, together with forced internal and external displacement creates severe adverse conditions for adolescents to envisage their future.

Our study is based on a participatory research investigation, having as co-researchers 12 Ukrainian adolescents. Using a Photovoice methodological approach, we explore their thoughts about the future, their aspirations, and expectations. The participatory frame provides the grounds for an ethical research endeavor, and it also aims to promote empowerment among adolescents. The results suggest that adolescents’ image of the future is closely linked to the uncertainties of war, with numerous dimensions being constantly revised based on the perceived possibility for the war to end. Their present social environment in terms of friends and local resources offers them hope for the future, but the constant feeling remains that of finding it difficult to make plans in a place where they do not feel they belong.