Many movies and TV shows embellish the college experience with clichés that glorify it to be a place to start over, be whoever you want to be; the nerdy mathlete from high school can now rush a sorority and be the hottest carefree babe at the university.
Unfortunately, cliques and preconceived notions of individuals are a prominent issue in our society. Such stereotypes exist and UCF student Nicklas Bajema aspires to raise thought and awareness in students with his photo campaign about why they exist and hopefully to rid of them altogether.
Bajema, a 20-year old political science major at UCF, is in the process of creating a photo campaign to generate awareness of commonly represented stereotypes. The campaign will consist of anywhere between 10 and 20 photographs that will be in both black and white and color with a single question below each, according to Bajema.
“My goal is not to provide too much thought,” Bajema said. “I want [viewers] to invoke their own reason throughout seeing the photos.”
Each photo will display an individual that is stereotyped for certain reasons, but will be photographed out of their stereotype.
To Bajema, the main objective of the campaign is to not only produce a response. Instead, he wants students to realize that they are not stereotypes and increase acceptance among students.
“These stereotypes don’t have to belong to just one, they can belong to everyone and by belonging to everyone there are no more stereotypes”, said Bajema.
Bajema anticipates to be finished by summer 2015 but hopes to be done sooner. His ultimate goal is to achieve SGA’s support and have the campaign playing on screens across campus and printed in as many publications as possible.
Bajema has also opened invites to anyone who wants to participate and have their voice and story heard.
“We are individuals that make up the community, we’re all UCF Knights, we’re all human,” said Bajema.
If interested in participating, contact Nicklas Bajema on Facebook at Bajema Photography.
