The Rotterdam singer Sophia is one of the generation of change, sees photographer Zahra Reijs

The large, international city of Rotterdam is a magnet for a whole generation of young people, who sometimes come from cramped villages and look a bit different than average. They quickly feel at home in Rotterdam. There they are accepted as they are. Can they breathe and develop. Apparently, in that atmosphere of freedom, 20-year-old singer Sophia can calmly work on her image: how she wants to dress, how she wants to present herself, who she wants to be as an artist who manifests herself under the name Shootmeinudreams. ‘I met her in March, when I portrayed her at a party where she was performing. She sings and she is a producer, young and starting, a real talent’, says Rotterdam photographer Zahra Reijs (29).

Reijs’s profession is to track down young people whose individuality and identity are expressed in their way of dressing, their piercings, tattoos, accessories, hairstyle and make-up, and then portray them. In the autumn this will result in the book Dear Future, in which Reijs depicts a hundred young people. Sophia is one of them. ‘In front of Volkskrant Magazine I decided to follow her longer.’ And so, in May, the photographer spent time with Sophia and her friends in their daily activities: chatting, gaming, making music, hanging out in the park, going out, going to parties.

Sophia is a representative of the generation of change, says Reijs. ‘Everything is possible and everything is allowed. In the past, everyone was pigeonholed, but that is really over with these young people.’ The influence of social media plays a role in this, Reijs thinks, but also the consequences of the corona measures. “The past two years have been very difficult and many young people have struggled with the lockdowns, for example because they were hit by depression. But it has also led to an intensification of the use of social media. Young people have contacts all over the world, they get a lot of things with them, have friends everywhere and thus get more recognition for who they are.’

Fluid – the word has already been mentioned in connection with this series about young people, summer and the cities. Reijs also uses that word to characterize the youngest generation of adults. Which doesn’t mean they’re floaty. ‘Sophia is very free. At the same time, she has both feet on the ground. She’s not living in a dream delusion, she’s actually very sober.’