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’.
Tag Archive for Africa
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.
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.
