United in Nima: Bay Area and Ghanaian Youth Share Lives Through the Lens

Photo credit: Jontonnette Clark and Sandra Asiamah, Ghana 2008

SAN FRANCISCO—This winter, SF Camerawork presents “United in Nima: Bay Area and Ghanaian Youth Share Lives Through the Lens,” a new exhibition featuring photographs by youth from SF Camerawork’s First Exposures photography mentoring program and teens living in the notoriously poor Nima slum of Accra, Ghana.

Five Bay Area teenagers, Naomi Castro (17) from San Pablo, her sister Bethany Castro (18), Marcio Ramirez (15) of San Francisco’s Mission District, Karen Gochez (18) also from the Mission and Jontonnette Clark (18) of Bayview-Hunters Point, traveled to Ghana as part of SF Camerawork’s First Exposures mentoring program. The program pairs low-income Bay Area youth with professional or fine art photographers for weekly photography classes and one-on-one guidance.

Over three weeks in July 2008, the teens shared their lives, culture and art with 17 students in Africa. They met daily, taking photographs together and leading classes for each other on representation, aesthetics, photography, culture, music and language.

“They made photographs that explore what it means to be misrepresented and misunderstood,” says First Exposures program director Erik Auerbach. “They brought these concepts to Ghana to explore the same issues with the African youth.”

Many of the young people enrolled in First Exposures have faced challenging life circumstances. Several have experienced homelessness or have lived in foster care. In 2005, long-term mentor of the program, Jamie Lloyd established the Ghana Youth Photo Project to provide similar opportunities for youth in Nima, in the city of Accra.

Lloyd’s involvement in both programs opened the door to this unprecedented cultural exchange. SF Camerawork seized the opportunity, raising funds and preparing the students for their journey. Their assistance included everything from helping students get their first passports and immunizations to shooting and printing the photographs for sharing with students in Ghana.

The circumstances of the Ghanaians were an eye opening experience for the Bay Area teens. On the group’s travel blog, 17-year-old Naomi Castro wrote, “I have been truly humbled and see life in a whole new light. Ghana has made me thankful for what I have … even the bad stuff … I am thankful for my kitchen with my ghetto sink and broken cabinet when there are people in Ghana who have some rocks, wood and a fire as their kitchen. I am thankful for my small bathroom with my quirky toilet when the gutter and outdoors are people’s bathroom … I mean here we are complaining over dumb stuff while these people are struggling, and we have everything and still aren’t happy.”

Although adjusting to Ghanaian life presented some challenges, the personal bonds the youth formed were deep and lasting.

For Castro, the most important aspect of the upcoming exhibition is doing justice to her new friends in Africa. “I just really want to represent them right,” she says. “We aren’t another group trying to send the same message of ‘feed the children’ or ‘AIDS epidemic!’ but we are trying to show a positive side of Ghana and all the great things we had a chance to experience.”

“The exhibition really tells the story of the cultural exchange between these American and African teens,” says Auerbach. “And it’s a profound story. These are all young people who don’t currently have the means to travel and meet peers in other countries. But they had so much to share with each other. It ended up really touching their lives in a deep way, and the photographs really speak to that.”

The students are working alongside First Exposures program mentor Vivian Chan, Lloyd and Auerbach to organize the exhibition as part of global youth initiative, Adobe Youth Voices. The exhibition is on view January 8 through March 25, 2009 at SF Camerawork.

Several special programs take place throughout the run of the exhibition, including a free opening night reception with the Bay Area youth on January 8, 2009, a special mentoring forum with John Yap of the Youth Development Initiative of San Mateo County on January 31, a film series about youth empowerment called “Breaking the Odds” with post film discussions in February and March, and a Family Day hosted by First Exposures youth on February 21.

The exhibition closes on March 25, 2009 with a special Premier Party where the work from the exhibition will be sold in a silent auction. Youth from the program will also premiere their First Exposures Adobe Youth Voices multimedia arts project.

This exhibition is being shown concurrently with Test Patterns: Recent Video From South Africa, an exhibition featuring the work of eight contemporary South African video artists who explore ideas of citizenship and belonging in post apartheid South Africa.

For more information, visit SF Camerawork website or call (415) 512-2020.

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