Don’t be shy!

Grahamstown school girls Nonelela Notyawa and Onela Mqakambe walk with trepidation into the photography studio on Rhodes campus. When the lights and camera are switched on I can sense their anxiety.

I ask who would like to go first and only get shy smiles in reply. Both 16-year-olds are participating in a developmental journalism project and photojournalism initiative called Boost! – a campaign and photographic endeavour aimed at addressing self-confidence issues affecting South African youth.

To create a better picture of the youth in the city, photojournalism students Mia van der Merwe, Leigh Worswick, Robynne Peatfield and myself have asked participants to take the risk in representing themselves.
When asked about their first photo shoot, Nonelela and Onela agree that it played on their nerves, but they were happy to have the opportunity to represent themselves.

For my portion of the project I’ve chosen to look at the appearance and representation of young people's self-confidence. But the crux of it is the attempt to express that everyone is beautiful and there is no need to get bogged down by stereotypes of beauty.

Boost! invites citizens to take part in the production of journalism and creates the space for people’s voices to be heard, and above all included in the practice of story-telling.

In a world controlled by big companies and large monopolies of media producers, often the messages put out are unfaithful to the realities on the ground.

So despite their visible apprehension at the lighting and equipment in the studio, Nonelela and Onela opened up to the idea and began to truly enjoy the experience. There was laughter, carefree smiles and a desperate search for props in the room to play with, from hairbrushes to handbags to empty picture frames.
The final Boost! exhibition will be held on Thursday, 18 October in the Albany Natural Science Museum from 4pm and you’ll see why Nonelela and Onela, among others, have nothing to be shy about.