2010 – A Scape of Experience
This year of 2010 I have travelled to London, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, South Africa, Malawi, Zambia and around my own country of Kenya. I get commissioned jobs or I travel for myself but always I try to make the most of everywhere I go, thinking always of new ideas, projects and important things to photograph. Sometimes it takes a short time, other times it needs planning and a little or a lot longer, in which case I go back. But always there’s a story.
These are a very few of the countless photographs I’ve taken this last year, either for pleasure (personal work) or commissioned. I show these not particularly for their brilliance but to show the incredibly interesting variety of subjects, people and experiences that comes through the work that I do.
Masai Mara - Print for Black & White Galleries in UK
Brochure image disease control textile company Vestergaard Frandsen
Canon 5D MarkII - Delta Dunes, Tana River near Somali Border in Kenya. Taken at 11pm at night.
Marian & Guy - Family wedding
New York City
New York Times - image from 'One Moment in Time'
Tinderet Tea Estate - Commercial images for Williamson Tea
British MP Craig Whittaker during a visit by Conservative and Labour Members of British Parliament to Korogocho slum in Nairobi to see Cash Transfer projects initiated by Oxfam GB and Concern Worldwide in an effort to address the food security issues declared by the Kenyan Government in January 2009.
Film Premiere in Nairobi - Hazi la bidi
Voting in Referendum - polling station Kibera slums, Nairobi
Opening of the Comprehensive Care Centre at Emusanda, Lurambi District in Western Kenya, attended by Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Ida Odinga and Vestergaard Frandsen, followed by meeting Sarah Obama at the new NGO Grandmothers Against Malaria Initiative (GAMI) in K'Ogelo, W.Kenya
Ongoing project to capture daily life in Nairobi's Kibera slum.
Personal Project - unnamed as yet this focuses on the massive growth, development and change in Nairobi, and the effect on the lives of those living in the city. Here are builders of a new office block, Kushee Towers.
MOULIN ROUGE – Chris’ 40th birthday – Nairobi Social Elite
getting ready, alex and steve
The Diamond Dogs
Birthday Boy Chris
Memories, sad and wonderful, listening to 'Your Song' sung by chris
'Your Song' sung to perfection by Chris
Love
Diamond dogs performance
Vanessa - loving sister
My brother Chris chose the theme ‘Moulin Rouge’ and has had a dream to sing in front of his friends all his life. He was to share his birthday with one of his best friends Polly, and to sing a duet with her “Come What May”, but sadly Polly and her young daughter Rosita died in a car accident shortly before the party was due to be held in June 2010.
The 40th was postponed until October. And Chris sang “Your Song” dedicated to Polly and Rosita. These are a selection of the photos taken during the evening that was my brother Chris’ 40th birthday party.
PORTRAITS: ‘Critical Community’ Families (S.Africa Dec 2010: Part 1)
Fundiswa Manyeni – 16, on her bed. She shares her bedroom with her grandmother at their home in Ntabamhlophe area near Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal
The Manyeni Family, outside their home in Ntabamhlophe area near Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal
Sayinile (means Signature) Manyeni - Fundiswa's mother, outside their home in Ntabamhlophe near Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal
Bhethina Manyeni - 89 years old. Fundiswa's grandmother, outside their home in Ntabamhlophe near Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal
Sphiwe Mkhize - 17 years old - and his Caretaker's family inside their home in Ntabamhlophe near Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal
Sphiwe's Caregiver's daughter and grand-daughter outside their home in Ntabamhlophe area near Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal
Sphiwe's sister and Caregiver's grand-daughter inside their house in Ntabamhlophe area near Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal
These first few days of December I joined Take Action Foundation (Japan) and UNICEF in South Africa at Emhubeni School in Ntabamhlophe near Estcourt in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa – roughtly a 2 hour drive inland on the N3 from Durban. Together, through sport, they are promote health and important social development skills such as responsibility, leadership, education, gender equality to help raise the community from it’s current status which is considered critically under-privileged by the South African Government.
Two students from Emhubeni School were chosen, for their excellence generally and in sport – Fundiswa Manyeni (16) and Sphiwe Mkhize (17). My programme was to visit the two children and their families to better understand the situation in which they live and in which Take Action Foundation and UNICEF were facilitating the Sports for Development programme at the school.
These profiles are simply a small window into the lives of Fundiswa and Sphiwe during the afternoon that I got to spend with them and their families, before reuniting with them two days later to photograph some of the concepts of the Sports for Development programme during the visit of Japanese former football-star and Take Action Foundation’s President Hidetoshi Nakata.
