They walk into the room, their faces filled with excitement. They huddle together as they approach the exhibit. Behind them comes Robynne Peatfield, a photojournalism student at Rhodes University. She has been working towards this day for months and smiles in anticipation.
They walk into the room, their faces filled with excitement. They huddle together as they approach the exhibit. Behind them comes Robynne Peatfield, a photojournalism student at Rhodes University. She has been working towards this day for months and smiles in anticipation.
Suddenly, the room erupts in laughter and smiles, shrieks of happiness and surprise. They are teenagers from the Grahamstown community who all share a passion for the arts. They have been the focus of a photojournalism campaign called BOOST started by Robynne Peatfield, Mia van de Merwe, Leigh Worswick and Melanie Jane.
Through the campaign, these students aimed to give Grahamstown youth a chance to think about their own identities, represent themselves and most importantly, develop their self-confidence.
Together with Peatfield, the group of learners embarked on a journey of growing their self-confidence through their artistic talents and then, using those talents to represent themselves in photos. They were given the freedom to say how and why they wanted to be photographed the way they were as well as choose which photos made up the exhibit.
Peatfield explains that the project has been both humbling and exciting. Through her meetings and interviews with the learners, she has grown to know them and understand their stories. During interviews, they expressed how much the campaign had meant to them and how it had affected their confidence – this, says Peatfield, was the best part of the project.
The campaign raises the point of how important holistic education is. Increasingly in schools, value is placed on subjects such as Maths and Science whilst the ‘arts’ are often not offered as part of the curriculum. But subjects like drama, dance and art play significant roles in the development and education of the youth. It is within these fields that people begin to truly explore and express themselves.
This expression, in the words of Tanja Smuts, a psychologist at the Rhodes counselling centre, “…has the potential to be therapeutic and a way to process aspects of one's self and one's world.”
Pumelela Nqelenga, the Upstart Drama Club facilitator, explains that giving learners a space to imagine is a powerful tool. “[They] need to dream, imagine and see themselves beyond where they are right now,” she says. Drama gives them the tools to imagine themselves as anyone they’d like to be.
Some of the learners who participated in the campaign explain that they often feel miserable and out of place in classrooms. One such learner found his happiness through participation in a field band. Bathabile Klaas says that it has given him a sense of importance and makes him feel needed. He believes that drama and music should be a part of school.
And he is right. Not all students are attracted by numbers and science and for those who aren’t, it becomes very easy to get lost in a system that doesn’t cater for you. One of the Amaphiko Township Dancers says it best. “[The arts can] help young people get out of the streets. It’s not good living in the township not doing anything. Sometimes you associate yourself with bad friends, sometimes you end up in jail, sometimes you end up in hospital.”
More than growing their self-confidence, the arts has the ability to save many learners from going down the wrong path. It can be a way out. The campaign has been successful in showing these learners that there is immense value to what they do and to make sure that they never forget it, they have their photos to remind them.
