Conceptual nominee

Aria is a concept that initially came to mind 2 years ago when contemplating the briefness of our existence and its likeness to a delicate candle flame.
The concept was eventually buried as life happened, only to be resurrected when Shisha, the body paint artist that worked on the model, showed me a sketch of her planned wax concept-look.I knew that this would be the right moment to combine my vision of Aria with her vision of the make-up. We worked together in a very symbiotic way to merge our visions and create the ensuing art work. We quite literally made with our own hands, from the body paint that Shisha laid on, to the silk fabric and giant candle that I fashioned.

I am a Kenyan photographer who is currently based in Berlin, Germany.

I happened upon photography 6 years ago and it has stuck with me since. I cannot explain what drew me to photography and I also cannot always explain what I am trying to convey with my images. This makes writing an ‘about me’ challenging.

What I can say is that, from the outset, I have preferred to set up photo shoots with models according to themes and concepts. And recently I realized that a common thread in my images is that I convey a romanticized version of reality.

I also recently discovered that seeing beauty gives me joy. Beauty is something I cannot really define yet but I think it goes much deeper than what we currently associate it with.

In 2015, I won the Student Fashion Photographer competition at the Kenya Fashion Awards