Strength has different meaning to everyone, and when life has been as tough as it has been for the teens living in Berry Street residential accommodation it takes on new meaning again.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A group of 14 to 17-year-old residents of Berry Street have shown through a camera lens what strength, overcoming adversity and beauty can mean.
The teens have an exhibition called Anon in the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.
“I have found that the strength of creative photography is that the physical act of holding the camera, then focusing eyes onto the small camera screen, can calm a busy brain,” said South Street artist and art therapist Linda Franklin.
“The Berry Street teenagers who have taken part in this photographic project have been encouraged to switch on their ‘artists eye’ by observing colour, tone, texture and shape in life around them. This enables the young people to perceive in different ways, and be supported to re-script and transform their understanding of what has happened to them.”
In all, eight large posters of Anon will be displayed on brick walls in Wigton Place laneway, between Armstrong and Doveton streets.
One teen involved in the project said photography had given him another outlet rather than graffiti.
“It kept me busy and it’s something to look forward to,” he said of Anon. “Young people have the rights to speak up and what we say is important.”
And the project could even have inspired a new career, with the boy saying he wanted to keep taking photos and would like “a world photography pass” so he could photograph everything.
Anon’s exhibition space, in a laneway, is fitting given the background of the young artists who created it.
Anon will be unveiled on Friday September 1 at 4.30pm. The Ballarat International Foto Biennale runs from August 19 to September 17.
