Exposure Awards 2013
Please click VOTE and support my entry in the Exposure Awards 2013
Here’s the link:
http://georginagoodwin.see.me/exposure2013
Deadline this Tuesday April 30th 11:59pm EST.
Help me be amongst the first to be considered for the People’s Choice Award!
THANK YOU!!
From My Archives :: Kenya Elections 2007/8
I have been asked by VICE Magazine to submit some images from Kenya’s 2007 elections and from my archive digging I have sent them these 3 screenshots for them to choose those images which suit. I thought I would share the screenshots with you firstly for interests sake and second because the images look so good all together like this! The images are taken in Nairobi’s streets and CBD, in Nairobi’s Kibera slum and also in Kenya’s tea-growing town outside Nairobi called Limuru, and in the western city of Kisumu.
All Images are Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
All Images are Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
Kenya Elections Part 2: Results Day
Days of malfunctioning vote counting machines, days of ballot paper issues (some valid papers even found on a dump site) and days of constant speculation. Days of waiting. Five days later and many hours and many hands-for-manual-counts later across the country the final tally came at the end of a nail-biting day during which Uhuru Kenyatta’s share of the vote jumped either side of the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a run-off, before settling on 50.03 percent. Kenyatta himself faces crimes of humanity charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged role in orchestrating the violence following the disputed December 2007 election.
Kenyatta made his acceptance speech at the Catholic University of East Africa around 5pm with Raila Odinga set to give his appeal to the supreme court regarding alleged evidence on a messed election.
To view on my official website the images I filed to AFP from the results day please click here. Below are images that I took on my iPhone throughout the results day.
** All Images Strictly Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved. **
6am: Dawn breaks in a very quiet Kibera where people were walking to work with no reaction to an apparent win by someone not chosen by them.
8am: An empty Nairobi city centre as people are indoors awaiting final results
9am: Empty roads and a lone billboard of Raila Odinga who’s votes brought him in allegedly second in the presidential race.
9.30am: An empty Uhuru Highway throught Nairobi’s CBD
9.45am: In Nairobi’s CBD newspapers already printing and selling Kenyatta’s victory in the presidential race.
11am: Jubilee coalition (TNA) supporters celebrating in Kawangware Kenyatta’s win in the Kikuyu area of Kawangware with a goat for ‘nyama choma‘.
12pm: ‘Amani’ or ‘Peace’ slogans on rock walls in Kibera slum
1pm: Eunice and others in Kibera still waiting for final results alongside peace slogans.
2pm: Everyone including ‘Paka’ the cat in a Darajani Kibera community room, still waiting for the final announcement of results.
4pm: Final results announced with Kenyatta the winner, Jubilee supporters celebrate at the Catholic Church University of East Africa.
5pm: Kenya’s president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta making his acceptance speech at the Catholic University of East Africa.
6pm: Bodyguards and security personnel take a rest after undoubtedly some long hours.
Kenya Elections Part 1: Voting Day
The day finally came. 4th March 2013. Our election day. According to the new constitution it was supposed to be in August 2012 but was postponed. Kenyans have been waiting for this day, to decide one president and one government not a coalition decided from a crisis. I was hired by Agence France-Presse (AFP) to cover the elections from inside Nairobi’s Kibera slum which was the scene of much of Kenya’s 2007/8 election violence being a stronghold for Raila Odinga then the opposition party now one of the 2013 Presidential candidates. You can view a selection of my images from the 2007/8 elections and post-election violence here on my blog.
The election day images I filed to AFP are on my official website please click here to view. Herewith below is a selection of images from Kenya’s election day 4th March 2013.
** All Images Strictly Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.**
7am: Dawn voter queue for Toi Market polling station near Kibera Slum
8am: View from residential balcony with a tied up chicken of voter queue at Old Kibera Primary School polling station
8.10am: Voters and Officials with seated onlooking Observers at Old Kibera polling station
8.20am: 5yr old Mwangaa with queues behind on voting day in Nairobi’s Kibera slum
8.20am: 5yr old Mwangaa with the ‘B’ queue for voters at Kibra Social Grounds, Nairobi
9am: Prime Minister and 2013 Presidential candidate Raila Odinga after he cast his ballot at Old Kibera Primary School
9.15am: Prime Minister and 2013 Presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s wife Ida Odinga waits for him in the car while he casts his vote at Old Kibera Primary School.
10am: Balcony chicken overlooking Old Kibera Primary School voter queue
11am: View over Nairobi’s Kibera slum with election posters
12am: Singer-guitarist 20yr old “Mandela” sings to entertain voters in the queue
1pm: “Kaptain” Mohamed Ali – voter ID security check volunteer
1pm: “Kaptain” Mohamed Ali checks voter ID cards
2pm: Voter queues and IEBC queuing clerk at Olympic Primary School in Kibera
3pm: Hawa Hassan, a Nubian born in Kibera in 1953, gets ready to leave her house with her Kenyan ID needed in order to vote. For almost 100 years Nubians have been denied Kenyan citizenship since the British brought them from southern Sudan to work as soldiers now they have all been granted status and are voting in Kenya’s 2013 elections.
3.20pm: Hassan Ali, a 30yr old Nubian living in Kibera, heads to the voting queues. For almost 100 yrs Nubians have been denied Kenyan citizenship after being brought from southern Sudan to work as soldier by the British. They now have full status and are voting in Kenya’s 2013 elections.
4pm: Aisha Ali, a Nubian born in Kibera in 1956, about to cast her vote. Nubians were denied Kenyan citizenship for almost 100 yrs since they were brought from southern Sudan by the British as soldiers. Now they have status and can vote.
4.15pm: Aisha Ali, a Nubian born in 1956 in Kibera, gets her finger marked after voting. Nubians were denied citizenship for almost 100 yrs in Kenya after they were brought to be soldiers from southern Sudan by the British. Now they have been granted status and are voting.
4.30pm: 5yr old Zamzam and her sisters go for a walk alongside voter queues on election voting day.
5pm: Voter at Old Kibera Primary School polling station
6.30pm: The last voter queue at Kibra Social Grounds on election day
7pm: Last votes going in around 8pm at Kibra Social Grounds
8.30pm: Tired officials formally close the ballot boxes at Kibra Social Grounds
9pm: Vote counting starts counting at Kibra Social Grounds
9.30pm: Ballot papers are opened by lamplight and shown to a panel of officials, the paper piled on the correct resulting candidates. Kibra Social Grounds
Berlin Walls
After the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 the city became a space within which culture and new ideas could be heard and because of that began to thrive. It is now an incredible place filled with art, culture, design, music, ideas, architecture, from all over the world. One of the things that stuck me literally immediately upon arriving is the graffiti and the street art. To those conservative among us it is apparently a sore site but knowing and understanding what the city and its people have come through and that expression through graffiti art on the Berlin Wall itself became popular for artists from all over the world and a place where tourists would go and admire the artwork is fundamental to understanding what one sees in the city today.
In the 1980s, the wall was reconstructed and made 14 feet tall. The West Berlin side of the wall had artwork completely covering the wall, while the East Berlin side was kept blank as people were not permitted to get close enough to the eastside of the wall to paint anything. To read more on Berlin Wall graffiti art click here
Here are a selection of my own photographs from my series “Berlin Walls” taken of graffiti art around Berlin city including some of the art from the east side of the Berlin Wall, now considered an actual gallery, the East Side Gallery.
All Images Strictly Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
Graffiti from around Berlin City:
And graffiti from the Berlin Wall itself:
All Images Strictly Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
Sanssouci :: Potsdam
My last day in Berlin I went 20 mins out of the city to Potsdam and to see the town and its famous Sanssouci Palaces. The palace grounds are home to 6 breathtaking palaces each unique in colour, design and detail. In winter when I visited everywhere looked just like a scene out of Narnia with blanket snow, frozen lakes and ponds, crystals of ice shimmering from the golden evening sunlight with pink, light blue and orange skies. I have to say it was one of the most beautiful days of my life.
Here is some info from Wikipedia:
Sanssouci is the name of the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, in Potsdam, near Berlin. The palace was built between 1745 and 1747 to fulfill King Frederick’s need for a private residence where he could relax away from the pomp and ceremony of the Berlin court. The name emphasises its reason for being: “Sans souci” is a French phrase which means “without concerns” or “carefree”. The palace was a place for relaxation rather than a seat of power and the peace one feels inside the grounds reflects exactly this.
After World War II, the palace became a tourist attraction in East Germany. It was fully maintained with due respect to its historical importance, and was open to the public. Sanssouci and its extensive gardens became a World Heritage Site in 1990 under the protection of UNESCO in 1995, the Foundation for Prussian Palaces and Gardens in Berlin-Brandenburg was established to care for Sanssouci and the other former imperial palaces in and around Berlin. These palaces are now visited by more than two million people a year from all over the world.
All Images Strictly Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
All Images Strictly Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
BERLIN ~ Magical City
Recently I returned from a trip to the city of Berlin. If any of you have been to Berlin you will know just how easily one becomes smitten with the place! For me it was a new experience visiting in the winter, my last few days the city was covered in a blanket of beautiful snow which is something a young Kenyan photographer has never really seen.
I photographed everywhere I went, the city is captivating with it’s extremes. Cold War history throws itself at you from every corner: World War buildings, the line through the city where once the Berlin Wall stood, sections of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the Jewish Museum, old bomb bunkers. The city’s past is everywhere. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 areas of complete dereliction and wasteland have provided gifts to the city in the form of new spaces. New culture has devoured the opportunity to become established in the form of art, music and political personalities, modern buildings, graffiti art, design studios, music bands, film festivals, flea markets, clubs and restaurants, sandwich bars, you-name-it. People have been flocking since the Berlin Wall came down from all over the world to have a taste of this legendary city. I’m a changed person for my own experience. What an incredible place.
Herewith are a selection of images taken as the experience of a Kenyan photographer during the 10 days I was lucky enough to spend in this magical city.
All Images Strictly Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
All Images Strictly Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
State Funeral
Please check out my protest photos also on my photographers collective Metaphor Images
The images look great!
2 weeks ago members of parliament secretly passed a controversial Sh9.3 million golden handshake. The MPs also approved that each of them gets an armed bodyguard, a diplomatic passport for the retiree and his wife and unlimited access to the executive lounge for Very Important Person in all the airports within Kenya. President Kibaki declined to assent to the Retirement Benefits bill enacted by the National Assembly on Thursday 10th January 2013 but allowed himself to take those benefits.
As a chance to join other Kenyans in speaking out against impunity and organize to vote for change Kenyans from all walks of life were invited on Wednesday, 16th January 2013 at 10am to Uhuru Park’s Freedom Corner to give the members of parliament the golden handshake they deserve.
Parliament officially closed on Tuesday 15th and the following day 221 coffins one for each outgoing Member of Parliament were delivered by protesters outside Parliament buildings in downtown Nairobi. The peace procession walked from Uhuru Park to Parliament with thousands of Kenyans anti-vulture flags while carrying the coffins. The protest was meant to signify the end of five years of impunity by the 10th parliament, a reminder to the leaders that Kenyans are ready for a peaceful ballot revolution and that Kenyans are holding leaders responsible for their actions hence the coffins symbolising death to impunity & bad leadership.
For more info there is an event page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/events/587686414581944/?notif_t=plan_user_joined
These are a selection of my images from the protests:
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin.
All Rights Reserved.
Photo of the Day :: Seiya & Aidan
There’s nothing like kids meeting for the first time, or remembering how to meet and share for the second time. Those little moments are what help us grow and understand the people we meet and the world around us. Beautiful moments.
All Images Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin.
All Rights Reserved.
Mugumoini ~ An hour window
These are some of the images I took this morning during the hour I was in Mugumoini slums on the edge of Nairobi’s Kibera slum. This slum has 5,000 adults and at least 15,000 children, has 4 paying toilets and is totally neglected by the government and NGOs. There are however some community health workers that live and work in the community such as Catherine Nguli that make an incredible difference.
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin. Strictly All Rights Reserved.
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin. Strictly All Rights Reserved.
Little Girl in the Red Dress
Need I say more….
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
Photo of the Day :: Zara
This stunning little girl with white blond hair dressed in a little red dress. Running around at a Christmas fair I saw her step into this stable shelter. She refused to giver her name she became quite shy and hid behind a wall. Following her still she skipped across the floor in front of me to the other wall then turned and gave me this incredible shot. I found her father and got her name and emailed him the image. Thank you Zara!
Photo of the Day :: Irene
Seven year old Irene playing in the dirt streets of her residential estate in Nairobi’s eastern suburbs, a place called Soweto.
The sun is going down and in a moment behind a cloud. I get the camera as low as possible and have her backlit. Out comes this gem…..
All Images Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin.
Vision Fund International :: Soweto, Nairobi
Vision Fund International is the micro-finance arm of the NGO World Vision. Working in areas where people have already benefited from the World Vision development programs but are unaware of the benefits of micro-finance they provide financial services and business training helping their clients achieve success.
In Kenya Vision Fund began their work in 2001 with the intention to help their clients increase household incomes offering small loans to increase stock, diversity business or purchase equipment needed to drive business growth. Vision Fund say their “micro-finance products in Kenya have helped to transform lives, keep children in school and provide medicine and healthcare needed to live full lives.”
I accompanied Vision Fund to visit some of their clients in Soweto on the outskirts of Nairobi. The main interviewee who has been a micro-finance client with VisionFund for 11 years is 50 year old and single mother Phoebe Aoko. She used her loan to start her tailoring business which she runs in stall no.395 in Kariobangi North’s market and has 3 permanent employees: Steve – 18, Dovrin – 20 and Jedida – 28. The loans and the shop has given support to all 6 of her children and herself since her husband passed away.
Evelyn Buyu makes and sells sheet and tablecloths. She has had her business for 9 years after training in design and embroidery. She used her first and only loan for material.
Beatrice Adhiambo is a self-taught hairdresser who used her loan back in 2010 to buy a new shop, hairdryers, chairs and electricity. She now has 7 employees and 5 trainees.
All Images Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin/Vision Fund. All Rights Reserved.
Phoebe Aoko ~ Tailor
Evelyn Buyu ~ Sheets & Tablecloth maker
Beatrice Adhiambo ~ Hairdresser
All Images Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
Photo of the Day
Turning gridlocked downtown Nairobi into a funky deep colours and clouds experience! Enjoy!
Photography Workshops Kenya
Visit our page for info on Photography Workshop courses run by professional photographers Riccardo Gangale and Georgina Goodwin.
http://www.facebook.com/PhotoWorkshopsKenya
For the course program and to see our CVs please click on the Notes at the top.
Nairobi Commuter Railway
I was supposed to be going to Addis, then AFP said “Djibouti”, then sadly their client cancelled that as well. So I was sent to photograph the first day in commercial action of the Nairobi Commuter Railway going between Syokimau and the city’s CBD. If you click this link Nairobi Commuter Railway you will get a whole list of links on google for more reading.
Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki launched the Nairobi Commuter Rail Service and the Syokimau Railway Station on Tuesday 13th November 2012 thus marking the next stage of railway development in the country since the earliest accounts of Nairobi’s history dating back to 1899 when a railway depot was built in a brackish African swamp occupied only by the pastoralist Maasai and the agriculturalist Kikuyu people. The railway complex and the building around it rapidly expanded and urbanized until it became the largest city in Kenya and it’s capital. To read the Wikipedia write up on Nairobi’s history and its beginnings from the railway click here.
The new rail service cost the Rift Valley Railways over Ksh. 400 million and what you can now find is a revamped new commuter platform inside the old building, brand new passenger carriages (still the old engine and guard carriage though), new electronic ticketing system and a swanky new railway station 18kms down the track at Syokimau. And of course a whole host of new and friendly staff!
Passengers pay Sh120 one way for the 18-kilometre journey which is takes a comfortable 30 minutes compared to KSh.50 for a matatu bus along the Kitengela-Mlolongo route which is often dangerous and can take over 2 hours depending on traffic. This does mean only a limited number of people able to afford the ticket price can use the service but I’m told by 25 year old ticketing marshal Nathan Kamande that they hope the numbers will increase on the service with more advertising.
I took the journey from the city centre railway station to Syokimau and back photographing for AFP all the way. It was a seriously interesting and fun assignment!
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
Old Nairobi Railway platform and ticket machines
Mary Mwangi, the Station Master, on the platform for the new Nairobi Commuter Railway in the city’s CBD.
Passengers for the new Nairobi Commuter Railway train enter through security.
After security a passenger goes to the ticketing window.
Passengers for the new Nairobi Commuter Railway train enter the new ultra-modern ticket gate system recently installed as part of a KSh.400 million revamp of Nairobi Railway Station.
A young girl behind the gates of the new ultra-modern ticket gate system.
Technician Moses Mwangangi, 45 years, checks the new Nairobi Commuter Railway train carriages in case of any need for repairs.
Passenger’s ticket
Passengers onboard the 17.20 train leaving Nairobi’s CBD for Soykamau on the first commercial day of the new Nairobi Commuter Railway train.
Lilian Molhua sits with other passengers onboard the 17.20 train leaving Nairobi’s CBD for Soykamau.
Security marshalls line the tracks of the new commuter train route as it winds its way from Nairobi’s CBD.
Security marshalls in orange line the tracks of the new commuter train route as it winds its way from Nairobi’s CBD through Makadara slum to the new railway station of Syokimau, 18 kms away on its first day of commercial operation.
Passengers disembark at the new Syokimau Railway Station.
Commuters at the new Syokimau Railway Station, 18 kms outside Nairobi’s city centre, head home after using the new commuter rail system.
Ticketing clerks aid a passenger inside the new Syokimau Railway Station building.
Train guard Alvabeck Okari comes to work joining the 18.35 commuter train from the new Syokimau Railway Station to the new Nairobi Commuter Railway Station in the city’s CBD.
A security guard in orange passes down the carriage towards two ticket marshalls and passengers onboard the 18.35 train from Syokimau to Nairobi’s city centre at the end of the Nairobi Commuter Railway’s first commercial day.
The 18.35 commuter rain from Syokimau passes under Mombasa Road flyover and traffic approaching Nairobi’s city centre at the end of its first day of commercial operation.
Still awaiting onboard lighting passengers on the 18.35 commuter rain from Syokimau sit in the dark as it approaches it’s destination in Nairobi’s city centre.
A young couple Abby and Keegan onboard the 18.35 commuter rain from Syokimau as it approaches it’s destination in Nairobi’s city centre at the end of its first day of commercial operation.
ALL IMAGES COPYRIGHT (c)GEORGINA GOODWIN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Carbon For Water Campaign ~ follow-up November 2012
Europe-based international company Vestergaard Frandsen who specialise in complex emergency response and disease control products, conducted a campaign in April and May 2011 distributing more than 877,500 LifeStraw® Family water filters to approximately 90% of all households in the Western Province of Kenya. The distribution program, called LifeStraw® Carbon for Water, is providing nearly an entire community of 4.5 million residents with quick access to safe drinking water at home.
I’ve just returned from taking these photos during their second follow up project this year. You get an idea of the scope of the issues being looked at: Mother and babies, village clinics, firewood, water sources/rivers, collecting water, clean drinking water, filtration using the LifeStraw filters, schools and children, families and homesteds. Pretty big!
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin/VF. All Rights Reserved.
Excerpts of Eden
A few instagrammed images of my dearest friend Eden and her dream man Sam during their stay in Zanzibar for their wedding…
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin. All Rights Reserved.
Photo of the Day ~ Baby Salume
I’m now in Kakamega in Western Kenya with Europe-based international company Vestergaard Frandsen who specialise in complex emergency response and disease control products. They are one of my best clients and their work is fantastic. This visit I am taking photos for the second follow up of their innovative Carbon For Water Campaign in Western Kenya. I shot this of baby Salume and mother Peris Ominde in Emulaha Village, Kakamega Central District.
All Images Copyright (c)Georgina Goodwin.
All Rights Reserved.
Eden & Sam ~ Beach Panorama, Zanzibar
During Eden & Sam’s wedding on Zanzibar’s Unguja Island I took a couple of panoramic photos but there seems to be no way of uploading a panorama the correct way, ie. horizontal, so you’ll have to turn your screens or your head to view these as and when I get to uploading them ;o)!
All Images Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin.
All Rights Reserved.
Eden & Sam ~ Mtoni Palace Ruins, Zanzibar
So the locations continue….! Now back from 3 days in beautiful Zanzibar for my great friend Eden’s wedding to her dream man Sam. One of Eden’s chosen venues for her wedding photos was the Mtoni Palace Ruins 6kms north of Stone Town.
To give you a little bit of the palace’s history:
The ruins correct name is Beit el Mtoni Palace meaning The Palace by the Stream and is one of main Omani palaces of the island. A combined visit to Beit el Mtoni, Beit el Sahel (now the Palace Museum) Beit al-Ajaib (the House of Wonders) and Maruhubi Palace gives a complete image of the Omani history of Zanzibar. The palace owes its name to the beautiful location on the western shore of Zanzibar and is one of the oldest buildings of Zanzibar. It was the largest palace on the island during the reign of Sultan Sayyid Said, who moved the capital of his Omani empire form Muscat to Zanzibar during the first half of the 19th century. At that time, over a thousand people lived in the palace and its direct surroundings. But around the 1880s the palace was abandoned and fell into ruin.
One of the most famous inhabitants of Zanzibar was Sayyida Salme who was born in the palace. Salme, one of the many daughters of Sultan Said, became world famous by the name of Emily Ruete, the Arabian princess who fell in love with the German merchant Rudolph Heinrich Ruete. The couple eloped to Hamburg, which meant that Salme had to say farewell to Zanzibar. In her beautiful book Memoirs of an Arabian Princess Salme, or Emily as she was called later after being baptized a Christian, wrote down her memories of the bristling Mtoni Palace during her youth, and the decay she encountered many years later, when she returned to Zanzibar one last time.
Although severely deteriorated, Mtoni Palace still offers visitors a glimpse into the world of the Arabian royalty once living there. Entering the palace from the coast line, one steps into the former reception hall. Most guests would not go any further when visiting Beit el Mtoni, since the women in the palace were not to be seen by stranger’s eyes. But now visitors can step over the threshold and walk in the footsteps of the Omani household. A visit continues into the inner courtyard, the palace garden and the well preserved bathing complex. One row of baths was used by the courtiers, whereas a separate domed aisle was uniquely reserved for the use of the Sultan and his first spouse. New restoration activities seem to be attempting to maintain original details though sadly the old restoration made by the government in the 1960s changed the face of the front wall adding huge amounts of cement and filling in many of the windows.
By photographing Eden and Sam amongst the ruins you will get an idea of the palace itself. Stunning….
All Images Copyright (c) Georgina Goodwin.
All Rights Reserved.
