Accra, Ghana – Doc Shoot with Nii Obodai Provencal for Director Martin Cooper
Africa
The Kibera Olympic Boxing Team
I recently traveled to Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya – the largest and most well-known slum in Africa, home to over a million people most of whom live on less than a dollar a day – to meet Mr. Hassan Abdul Salim, the coach of the ‘Kibera Olympic Boxing Team’.
On the cover of “Latitude” iPad magazine
My photo of a Samburu woman shot on my trip to Kenya earlier this is on the cover of issue 2 of the iPad magazine “Latitude”.
Kwaheri Dark Star
The last (I think) in the Kenya 2010 series of blog posts:- pictures that didn’t fit into any of the other posts.
My Kenya trip this year was my first real holiday in more than 4 years and the first time I had left Japan apart from to attend my Mothers funeral in the same period. Unsurprisingly it had a profound effect on me, reminding me of some important things about myself that I had forgotten under the weight of living a ‘normal’ life in Tokyo.
The details of those remembrances are too long and boring to anyone else to go into here, but suffice to say the effects will be reverberating through all aspects of my life for some time yet.
I shot, what I believe was, the best photo story I’ve ever shot and am at present still hawking it around to magazines in the hope of getting it published, meaning that it will not (hopefully never) be appearing here.
I also shot quite a lot of other pictures that I am proud of and most of them have appeared here over the past weeks as blog posts.
For this final Kenya blog post a gallery of pictures that were not part of any particular set or didn’t fit anywhere else.
Kwaheri (Goodbye in Swahili) Dark Star, we will be meeting again soon.
Nairobi – Part 4 – Dancing Queen?
As a follow-up to the last post about the free party in Kibera, it’s another video post, also shot at the same free party.
This time it’s those pesky kids again.
Enjoy.
Nairobi – Part 3 -Kibera Free Party
Within a few days of arriving in Nairobi I found myself at a most unusual concert,organised by the Goethe Institut Nairobi, being paid to take pictures.
The Teichmann brothers, a techno duo from Germany who were in Nairobi recording an Album with members of Ukooflani and Jahcoozi a dub/techno outfit also from Germany were playing an outdoor free concert at St George’s orthodox church in the heart of Kibera on a sunny Tuesday afternoon.
The residents of Kibera came to dance, relax and see what the strange Germans were doing out in the (almost) mid-day sun.
Everyone enjoyed themselves, especially the kids, and it really felt like something interesting was happening, the mixing of different musical styles and the co-operation between the musicians and the residents of Kibera.
Thanks to Katarina from Goethe for hiring me having only met me once, Sam for setting that up ;-), Hasani for driving me there, All the musicians for making me feel so welcome and a special thanks to Andi Teichmann for being a really damn nice guy.
Nairobi – Part 2 – Kibera Kids
Kibera is the largest and probably most famous slum in Africa.
Over a million people living mostly on less than $1 U.S. a day.
During my Kenya trip I spent a lot of time there, partly for work and partly to hang out with some friends I’d made.
One of the things that stuck me about the place was how happy the children seemed, despite their circumstances.
Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m firmly in the “Lord of the flies” camp when it comes to my opinion on children, but I will grudgingly admit to their occasional cuteness.
The children of Kibera warmed my heart in ways I will deny ever admitting, so before I ruin my hard faced image even more I will simply present a gallery of ‘cute little slum dwelling poor African children™’, go and pour myself a Gin and Tonic and mourn the loss of the Empire ;-)
Nairobi – Part 1 – Some of them are drinking wine
“Lavosti and Oren, Impromtu jam, Nairobi April 2010”
A few days after arriving in Nairobi, the house where I was staying, legendary for its parties, was host to the birthday party for a very lovely man called Sam Hopkins (Founder of SlumTV).
He turned out to be a ‘diamond geezer’ and was one of the people who made my Kenya trip so memorable.
The outside patio at the party turned into a jamming area with many musicians from many countries,
(Israel, Kenya, Italy and Germany to name but 4)
Yours truly played his thighs as bongos for so long that my thighs looked like this in the morning:-
But I digress, When I heard the guy in the video, Lavosti from the hip-hop collective Ukooflani, start blowing into his hands and this amazing trumpet like sound issuing forth, I stopped slapping my thighs and ran and got my camera…..
The video above is all I managed to capture before the song ended , more beer arrived and the jam moved on.
Lavosti is backed on guitar by Oren from the band Jahcoozi (there will more of them in later blog posts).
I couldn’t believe he was making that amazing noise with just his hands, and boy could he sing too.
He tried to show me how to do it, but I was embarassingly bad and probably a little too far gone to try by then.
I hope you are as amazed by this little slice of musical genius as I was.
Lamu – Part 2 – ‘Telephone Graveyard, Magic Obama and The Meat Market’
For part 2 of the Lamu posts, first a little history and some dry facts:-
Lamu town was founded in the 14th Century by Arab traders and until 1907, when it was abolished, its main income was from the slave trade.
The Portuguese invasion began in 1506, the Portuguese having a virtual monopoly on shipping along the East African coast.
In the 1580’s Lamu led a rebellion against the Portuguese prompted by Turkish raids.
In 1652, Lamu was assisted by Oman in lifting Portuguese control.
Lamu’s years as an Omani protectorate mark the town’s golden age.
During this period, Lamu became a center of poetry, politics, arts and crafts as well as trade.
Since the 1970’s its economy has been primarily based on tourism, although it does still function as a busy port.
The town’s population are predominantly Muslim.
Ok, thats enough of that……….
What this means in practise for slowly de-stressing photographers on the run from a life in a country they have grown to hate and the craziness of Nairobi is;- beautiful buildings with intricately carved doors and cool breezy courtyards (a prime reason for its UNESCO world heritage ranking) , a maze of tiny streets (which reminded me of a cleaner version of parts of Varanasi in India) , amazing sea food, a few choice bars (which I’m told during the high season are filled to bursting with Kenyan prostitutes from the mainland) and a promenade bustling with life.
There are the inevitable hassles of silver tounged beach boys looking to make a fast $ from tourists or find a rich western girl to take them to the bright lights of the big city and some ecological issues caused by the towns ever-increasing waste management issues and thirst for electricity.
However,
For me, it was a glorious week of sunshine and relaxation.
(Big thanks to Hassani , Maffi and the Germans I hung out with while I was there ;-)
And so, a gallery of unashamedly tourist shots, with a few Uchujinesque gems thrown in for good measure.
Lamu – Part 1 – Ass !
Lamu Town, Kenya’s oldest living town, a UNESCO world heritage site and, for me at least, a crazy 14 hour matatu ride from Nairobi.
During this years excursion to Kenya, I spent a week there, swimming, eating amazing sea food, drinking beer and fighting off the confidence tricksters known as the ‘beach boys’.
It’s a pretty idyllic place, rumor has it that even Princess Stephanie of Monaco has a beach house a little further up the island in Shella, the rich tourists town.
Usually when I’m on ‘holiday’ proper as opposed to ‘travelling’ I like to get taxis everywhere, it makes me feel rich and decadent, a feeling that despite my anarcho-marxist ranting I really rather enjoy.
Lamu, however has no cars, one of its great draws for us tourist types (oh , that and the fact that it’s over a thousand years old).
The ‘Lamu Taxi’ as its affectionately known is therefore the humble beast of burden, the Ass or Donkey.
So, as a tribute to these hard-working domesticated members of the horse family, a gallery of Ass ;-)
p.s. I walked a lot.
Isiolo – Part 3 – Turkana and Samburu Tribal Women
The third and final part of ther Isiolo series, was actually not shot in Isiolo at all……..
If you get in a jeep and drive a few hours north of Isiolo, through increasingly empty terrain (save for the antelope, giraffes and other assorted wildlife) you come to ‘Archers Post’, basically a village around a catholic mission (or should that be the other way round?) and if you drive for another hour or two even further North you come to Sereolipi, and then you really feel like you are truly in Africa™, nothing but the mud huts, tribal people and African™ bush as far as the eye can see.
The main tribes in the area are called the Turkana (in their oral traditions they designate themselves the people of the grey bull) and the Samburu (They refer to themselves as Lokop or Loikop the meaning of which even the Samburu diagree on)
Much has been written about them and they have, like most heavily adorned African™ tribes, been photographed by everyone and his grandmothers friends dog.
However, I thought , seeing as I was there…………..
So, some bargaining with sugar and tobacco later, allow me to present a series of portraits of Turkana and Samburu tribal women in all their glory.
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Isiolo- Part 2 – Isiolo Town
For part 2 of the Isiolo series, some pictures of the town itself and its environs.
Isiolo has grown exponentially in the last 5 or 6 years as the road that leads there has been rebuilt and now actually resembles what most of us would refer to as a road rather than a mud track.
As one drives into town the two buildings that immediately jump out are the huge cathedral and the Mosque.
(The Italian priest who built the cathedral apparently died when he climbed up to fix one of the windows above the altar and fell, hitting the large cross on the way down.)
Churches seem to be everywhere you go, no matter how remote the place.
The people were very friendly and inquisitive, it seems that although Isiolo is on the main route north to Lake Turkana that few tourists stop there for any length of time.
At least here the kids didn’t run away crying when they saw me (granted that happens almost everywhere not just in small African towns.)
They were not too keen on having their photos taken though, a phenomenon I encountered through much of Kenya and which I am told is due in large part to the thousands of photographers that visit Africa, take pictures of the poor with their big expensive cameras and leave, leaving the local population feeling somewhat exploited.It’s such a shame though because around the golden hour the light is simply majestic.
The other thing that struck me (though not unique to Isiolo) was the hand painted shop fronts, often named after events that were taking place at the time they were built. Which goes some way to explaining why its ok to have a “Twin Towerz (sic) Hotel”.
It’s worth noting that the last picture in the slide show shows a red shirt marking the spot where a man was eaten by a crocodile less than 2 weeks before the shot was taken, the red shirt was all that remained of the unfortunate fellow.
In fact there were many places, especially near the rivers and lakes, that my guides said we couldn’t walk, because as it was rainy season and the usually barren landscape was a riot of greenery it was too easy for crocodiles and other predators to hide, making it too dangerous.
I was wearing a red shirt that day so I decided to take their advice.
And so, some pictures……….
Isiolo – Part 1
During my Kenya sojourn I was lucky enough to stay with a very hospitable Italian man, his Turkana wife and the 19 members of their extended family just outside Isiolo, a small town about 6 hours north of Nairobi.
The friend who suggested I stay there told me “it’s like the edge of the world”.
I didn’t quite understand what she meant untill I went there.
Isiolo is just a small Kenyan town, interesting enough but fairly unremarkable, however a mere 10 minutes walk outside the town it feels like you have stepped into some National Geographic Africa photo spread, it’s all mud huts, naked children and heavily adorned Turkana tribe men and women.
Magical.
This is the first post in a series about my all too brief stay “at the edge of the world”.
Long exposure (seconds) high ISO shots (some pushing the limits of the 5DmkII) of the house where I stayed.
Much more is coming.
