A portrait of Kenya is a collection of images that I took during August of 2013 and 2014. I took my first steps in Africa with the ‘South Face’ NGO, a charity focusing on education in Kenya for girls from poor rural areas who have good grades at school but simply cannot manage to generate the money to pay for university. The charity believes that through educating women, the continent’s indisputable ‘motor, ‘Africa will help Africa’.
During the two times I was there, I felt like I needed more time to understand this complex place, to get to know Africa better.
Kenya has a very unique personality, like I imagine most African countries do.
Things flow with no hurry, yet suddenly you find yourself in the midst of chaos and you don’t know how it happened. Contrasted feelings fight for attention; their look is deep, restless, and delicately invincible.
Unfortunately the situation in Kenya at the moment is volatile; I wonder how things will go from now on and how they’ll cope if the situation gets even more complicated. I thought it’d be great to try to reflect what Kenya was about for me during my time spent there. I suppose I’m trying to reflect my vision of the country through portraits.
These are portraits of Kenyans, people I have met, others I haven’t but who are still firmly in my memory. They’re feisty, courageous people and although things could get worse, I would keep the hopeful and very much alive image of Kenya that I’ve seen so far.
Kenya is a country that does not leave you indifferent and I wish the best for this country, for this continent that lives so humbly which is always trying to survive instead of living.
