nairobi portraits
i had never before been to africa......i had never before tried to use powerful strobe lights in the noonday sunlight.....the challenge i gave myself was to see if i could combine my so called "street shooter" style with power light portraiture of some of the people who make up nairobi....the works here are from kibera, a slum neighborhood squeezed right up next to a wild game park at the edge of town....
sunday morning is just an amazing time in kibera....almost everyone is off to church....despite the ramshackle nature of this neighborhood, somehow everyone was wearing clean, pressed clothes...their sunday best...pride personified.....my jeans and shirt were surely wrinkled....
this little taste of africa only whetted my appetite for more....but, i never got out of nairobi.....i only saw, and became mesmerized by, this too crowded, too noisy, too dirty, too dangerous city.....most tourists land in nairobi , spend the night, and head out the next morning for kenya's spectacular game parks....one day i would like to do the same....but this trip was to photograph the people who endure this city....looking for work, looking for salvation....
11 yr old mary akinya said " i am reading a story about a cheetah, elephant, zebra, and lion..they are fighting over who is strongest..but the zebra is the smartest and he wins"
the reverend christopher mwenama earns his living as house servant..."i was called to the ministry in a dream" he says......
all of the 800,000 people who live in kibera have a story.....i only know two of them....
