Chris Young, owner of Bhejane Photography (Bhejane being the Zulu word for Rhino, an animal Chris has always felt an affinity towards) has always had a love for photography and has for many years imagined ways he can make a living doing what he loves. Chris intends to start a business offering a variety of services including photography for local events and weddings as well as developing a range of fine arts prints depicting life around the iMfolozi Game Reserve.
Chris has been using some pretty basic (actually rotten) equipment to teach himself the basics of photography and we've been on the hunt for someone to help mentor and support Chris for over a year. Enter professional photographer Hugh Bland who recently met with Chris and donated camera equipment lenses and offered his time for mentorship and training, a massive gift!
Working (as a photographer) in a lot of the rural areas close to nature reserves I have witnessed changes to the landscapes over time and how that affected the people living nearby. I have always wanted to give back somehow to these communities whose lives I had been a part of but wasn’t quite sure how. So to be able to share my passion with Chris and give him a hand in continuing the craft of storytelling through photography was a gift for me as much as it was for Chris.
For Chris, this act of kindness brings him that much closer to fully realising his dream and telling his local stories through photography. Chris will also now be engaged in photography for our other Unearthed Community Leader programs to generate photographic content to help other young entrepreneurs tell their stories and market their businesses