Photo exhibition depicts Kenya a century ago

By Ancient pictures strikes a chord with organisers of the PIGA PICHA! photography exhibition at the Nairobi gallery.

The exhibition that has been running for close to a year now and set to end in July 24th showcases Kenya history engraved in portrait photography. Photography is an aspect of life.

Over the years, studio photography has been the most dominant form of photography with street photography creeping in.

However, with advent of mobile phones, the traditional hard-copy or printed forms of the art are fast being replaced with technologies such as memory cards for storing memorable times.

But for the exhibition organisers— Goethe Institut- Nairobi, University of Bayreuth in Germany and National Museums of Kenya— artists should now concentrate more on art photography which is untapped as more focus on street and studio photography to earn revenue.

“What we mainly exhibited at the gallery were studio and street photographs that reflected the history and social relations among the people of Kenya. There were few art photography pieces and this shows that art photography is not extensive in Kenya because there are very few art photographers,” says Johannes Hossfeld, director of the Goethe Institut- Nairobi.

The exhibition that was managed by National Museums of Kenya gave many an opportunity to view 300 photographs at a cost of Sh100 for citizens, Sh400 for non-citizens within East Africa and Sh500 for non-citizens outside East Africa.

The photographs displayed a spectrum of portrait photography that ranged from few artistic photographs to studio and street photos taken over a century ago.

Press and documentary photography was not exhibited.

As the display comes to a close in mid July, one aspect of photography in East Africa is evident; photography extensively defines Kenya’s history and its social dynamics over time.

“The research took us two years. At the same time the exhibition became very local, very Kenyan show. The more we researched the more we realised this exhibition will actually narrate the history of Kenya. For example, the room that portrays family relationships tells us how the different generations relate to each other and how this has changed over decades,” said Mr Hossfeld.

In many cases either in written material on arts or in topical discussions, artistic photography has been a subject of debate.

Organisers of the PIGA PICHA! gallery view local artistic photography as almost extinct, citing that the few local art photographers are not given the necessary recognition and support from the local market.

Focus in local photography seems to be more on street and studio photography in addition to the dominant press photography.

Mr. Tom Odhiambo, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s department of literature, says artistic photography is given little attention locally.