Sport’s faces of the future take over town centre
They balance balls, or themselves, or both. Some look off camera, others directly into the lens. There are big smiles and resolute stares.
The sporting youth of Papakura and their skills and determination are on display in the South Auckland suburb as part of a photographic exhibition in the town centre this month.
Representing Papakura, or #kurareps online, continues until the end of this month. More than 100 large black and white portraits of 12 to 24-year-olds have been put in windows and on walls at 13 central sites.
Among those featured is 16-year-old Amber Goodger, who has been involved in Counties Manukau Gymnastics since she was 6.
She loves the sport because it challenges her, gives her structure, keeps her fit and makes her part of a community.
Seeing a large photo of herself in the town centre was both weird and cool, the latter especially because she wasn’t the only one involved in the project.
“It’s cool seeing how many different sports people are doing and how we are all kind of part of the same thing . . . we are all in it with Papakura together.”
Sixteen-year-old Papakura High School 1st XV wing Viliami Tomu was photographed with his 15-year-old brother, Billy, and their portrait had again been photographed “lots of times” by their proud parents.
“It’s buzzy. I never thought I could have a photo of myself in Papakura.”
The best part of his sport was being in a team, and nurturing his dreams of one day pulling on the black jersey. “I’ve just got to work hard for that one.”
The portraits were taken by Papakura-raised photographer Sean Atavenitia as part of a Papakura Local Board-funded project working with Auckland creative placemaking and events organisation Fresh Concept.
Board chairman Brent Catchpole said the exhibition had added “real vibrancy” to the town and Fresh Concept general manager John Sutton said the four-month project was great to work on because “everyone was really into it”.
“There was a real pride of place . . . it was overwhelming how keen everybody was.”
Atavenitia said he focused on boosting the kids’ confidence when shooting the portraits.
“I treated their photos like they were sports stars. I wanted the feeling to be much deeper than just ‘that’s a cool photo of me’, but one that I want to share with my friends and family.”
The 24-year-old said he was a bad student who dropped out of Rosehill College but had later found his passion in photography and was as excited as the exhibition subjects to see their portraits around the town centre.
“I never in a million years thought I’d see 105 photos I took up in Great South Rd.”
See more about the exhibition on the Representing Papakura #kurareps Facebook and Instagram pages.