Kenya Photography

8/3/2019 Kenya Photography

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Joshua Gale

11/23/11

Adv. Documentary Photography

In July of 2011, I was given the unique opportunity to, for one month, live with and document the lives of a Maasai tribe in

northern Kenya. The entirety of my experience was under the guidance of various representatives of the not for profit organization

Unto the Least of His. In particular, my job was to document the relief efforts that are being made in an attempt to control damage

done by a nearly year long drought. This drought has taken lives and has created hardships for communities in almost every aspect of

their lives. My experience, I soon figured out, would be unable to be reproduced in full via any camera equipment, not just mine, no

matter the caliber. I was sent on an impossible mission to constrain a culture to merely 2 dimensions and bring it home as if it could

be canned and tasted like an exquisite food.

Nonetheless, as time has progressed and artistic techniques have developed, artists have trained themselves in ways that are

meant to represent fragments of reality so that at least bits of that reality can be conveyed to the public. Some of those photographic

rules I made sure to break, while others I intentionally kept. My hope with my photographic documentation is that, even though

while there I felt as though I were in some epistemic anomaly, it is apparent to the viewer that I maintained control within myself and

was able to seize the opportunity to simplify a very distant place and different culture into a clean and precise photograph that anyone

can understand. When seen, the photographic dissemination of a struggling people is something anyone should be able to interpret.

As with many things, there are many severe dualities at play in the Kenyan culture. They are teased with a democratic

legislature that is corrupted by tribalism. Though Kenyans are a very eastern people, they have attempted to embrace western

technology and thus have created a paradigm very unique to themselves. The walls of their homes are made with water, sand, and

dung while the ceilings are made of scraps of plastic, sheet metal, and fabric. Kenya is a place where simple lives have become


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complicated and where tourists spend thousands of dollars to witness for just a short period of time the dying and materialistic poverty

of the Kenyan nation, while those people on display hardly ever get even a small fragment of that money. My photography is meant

to embrace these dualities while at the same time express the purity and desperation of the beautiful people I saw in their deepest time

of need. The 10 photographs enclosed here best represent various parts of the Kenya that I was able to experience.


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This is a photograph

of a Kenyan boma.

These bomas are

made of wood, mud,

and dried grass and

limbs. I pulled

down the saturation

in this photograph,

in order to express a

mood that one

might feel as they

approach this home.

The studs of the

home are several

vertical pieces of

wood that create a

linear patternand

because the edges of

the house are not

shown, the viewer

might feel as thoughthis house goes on

and on well beyond

what is seen here.


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The door offers a

place for the viewer

to rest his eyes.

This photograph was

taken with as wide an

aperture as possible.

The sharp focus on

the eyes of the child

and fly on his nose

are meant to catch the

viewers attention.

As with the previous

portrait, simplicity is

a brute part of the

strength of this

photograph.

The light falls softly

on his face from the

cloudy day and his

eyes look as though

they are made ofglass, with an

interesting reflection

of the photographer

in the center of them.


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This wide-angle

photograph was taken

atop one of thehighest points in

Kenya.

The cloud formation

that starts in the

center of the image

burst forward toward

the viewer while the

cliff juts out of the

left side of the image

and peers over the

bush underneath.

I softened the edges

just slightly to add a

soft tone to the image

that balances out the

magnanimous size of

the clouds andmountains with a

touch of serenity.


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Here are some

members of a

community that havevery recently received

a well. They began to

dance and sing

because we, the

Americans

responsible for the

well, came to visit.

I lowered my camera

toward the ground

and set my shutter

speed to be very fast

to capture the water

particles as they

splashed outward.

The positions of the 6

hands and one foot

juxtaposed against the

smile of the little boysface form together to

convey a very joyful

and playful attitude

a very appropriate

feeling considering

the situation.


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This is the structure of a

boma in progress. Iwanted to take a detail

of this structure to show

how complex a

structure this can be.

The grid of lines created

from each of the sticks

conveys this thought of

complexity.

The blurry background

adds to the continuity of

the photograph by

giving the viewer

something easy to rest

his eyes on and though

distinct, hard edges

cannot be recognized,

they reiterate the

direction and texture ofthe sticks in the

foreground

strengthening the

composition as a whole.


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The sign in the back left

mimics the position of

this ostrich crossing our

path. The distinct linespainted on the road dip

back beyond the ostrich

and add to the

awkwardness, yet

strength, of this photo.

In Kenya I felt as if I

were in another world,

one where even an

ostrich could appear

from the bushes and

walk in front of your

vehicle. The overall

yellow tone makes the

viewer feel in that same

surreal yet lethargic

mood.

The shape of theostrichs neck and legs

work together to show

movement and a certain

pace within the photo.


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The hard light coming

from under the hood

of the car and use of

an extended shutterare at the heart of this

photograph.

One night, on our way

home, our car broke

down near a bus stop.

Many of the Kenyans

who were waiting at

the bust stop came to

our aid. It was a

chaotic moment and I

wanted to capture the

rustle and bustle of it.

The strong lighting in

the center with intense

amount black at the

bottom creates some

very interestingsilhouettes.

The prominence of the

color red adds to the

immediacy of the

situation.

Documents

Kenya Photography