THESE ARE SOME OF MY EXHIBITIONS AND CONCEPTUAL PROJECTS—UNPALATABLE, PUNK CUCUS AND GUKAS, CREATING ISOLATION, AND GRVTY. EACH PIECE EXPLORES DEEP THEMES: FROM AFRICAN HAIR CULTURE AND IDENTITY, TO SOLITUDE AND SPIRITUAL TIES, ALL THROUGH THE LENS OF CONTEMPORARY CONCEPTUAL PHOTOGRAPHY ROOTED IN NAIROBI AND BEYOND.

FRAGMNTS

FRAGMNTS IS AN IMMERSIVE PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPLORATION OF NAIROBI AS MEMORY, ATMOSPHERE, AND FRAGMENTED EXPERIENCE. THROUGH ABSTRACTION, LAYERED IMAGERY, AND ARCHITECTURAL FORMS, THE WORK EXAMINES THE CITY NOT SIMPLY AS A PHYSICAL SPACE, BUT AS AN EMOTIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE SHAPED BY MOVEMENT, TENSION, CONTRADICTION, AND CHANGE. PRESENTED IN NAIROBI IN 2024, THE EXHIBITION INVITED AUDIENCES INTO A RE-IMAGINED PORTRAIT OF THE CITY—ONE CONCERNED LESS WITH DOCUMENTATION AND MORE WITH PERCEPTION, FEELING, AND THE FRAGMENTED WAYS WE EXPERIENCE URBAN LIFE. FRAGMNTS ATTRACTED OVER 4,000 VISITORS AND GENERATED SIGNIFICANT ENGAGEMENT BOTH PHYSICALLY AND ONLINE.

 UNPALATABLE

NOT A PUSHOVER. UNYIELDING. JUST A GLIMPSE OF A WOMAN WHO CHOOSES TO CARVE HER OWN PATH, UNBOUND BY SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS OR MALE DOMINANCE. IT'S ASTOUNDING HOW WE MADE A SYSTEM CAN SO RIGID, FORCING WOMEN INTO SUBMISSION AND OPPRESSION, EVEN THROUGH VIOLENCE. A WOMAN'S CHOICES SHOULD BE HERS AND HERS ALONE TO MAKE.

Model - Takona. Body paint - Takona & El. Styling - El.

PUNK CUCUS & GUKAS

In a far future where authentic African hair has all but vanished, a league of wise elders — the Punk Gukas and Cucus — rise as the last custodians of our legacy. Victims of the Great Appropriation of the 2000s, their timeline witnessed a mass forgetting, where vanity replaced memory, and ancestral hairstyles faded into myth.

But these guardians refused to let the story end there. They’ve broken through time itself — not just to warn us, but to fight for us. To protect what we’re on the brink of losing: the roots, the rituals, the pride in our hair. They are back. And they are not here to ask.

CREATING ISOLATION

AS THE NAME SUGGESTS, I PHOTOGRAPHED THIS PROJECT OVER THE PERIOD WHEN WE WERE ‘LOCKED DOWN’ IN OUR HOMES BECAUSE OF THE COVID PANDEMIC. THIS SELF PORTRAIT PROJECT WAS HOW I CHANNELLED MY FEAR, HOPELESSNESS, ANGER AND JUST GENERAL ANGST.