Community Safety MEC Dan Plato visited the Chrysalis Academy’s Youth Month photographic exhibition at the Artscape Theatre on Tuesday June 20.
The exhibition, which runs until Sunday July 2, shows the changes the academy’s students experience during a three-month programme.
It is hosted in partnership with the Cape Town Photo Club, which has volunteered to run a series of photography training workshops for the academy’s students and staff.
Titled Rust and Resilience, Olwethu Njoloza, 21, from Philippi said she was captivated by how the bars [of the prison doors] remained strong and solid after all this time, despite the wind, the neglect.
Giovanni Johnson, 24, of Beaufort West also photographed prison bars and said looking through them made him feel like the inmates did as they were “seeking freedom,” the title of his work.
A photograph called Flipper, of a seal was taken by Sonwabile Puwani, 25, from Goodwood, who he said he felt like the seal was posing for him. “I find the playfulness, the smooth skin and hairs are very beautiful”.
Mongezi Phama of Villiersdorp said his picture of a seagull flying against the sun to represent hope and life.
The Chrysalis Academy is based at the foot of the Constantiaberg Mountain in Tokai and offers a three-month residential youth development programme for young people. Since 2000, it has worked with more than 8 000 young men and women aged 18 to 25.
