Samburu groomsmen preparing for a wedding/ photo by Louis Nderi
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (appeared in Business Daily 10 August 2018)
Louis Nderi
has been winning photography awards ever since he got back from Malaysia where
he had studied Advertising at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology in
2012.
First he won
Best Young Photographer of the Year in 2013 from the Photographers Association
of Kenya (PAC). Then he won a MASK prize for Best Photography the following
year at a ceremony where Manu Chandaria was guest of honor at Nairobi
University. And then in 2016 he won yet another PAC prize, this time for Best
Documentary Photographer of the Year for a Doc film he did on his ancient but
affable grandmother.
But before
he leaves town, Louis has to share the first phase of his latest initiative
which he calls ‘Project 43’. It’s so named because he intends to take
photographs and collect the stories of Kenyan people coming from all 43
communities.
“It may be
that I’ll collect stories and images of more than 43,” says Louis who realizes
there are sub-cultures and sundry religious traditions within many Kenyan
community. So his numbers may shoot up if he’s true to his vision of collecting
cultural elements of all the various Kenyan ‘nations’.
So far, he’s
taken photos of countless cultural ceremonies and collected stories from more
Kenyan families than he can count. But since he gave his project an official name,
he’s only worked his way through two communities.
Jains wedding party
It is those
two that will be the main features on display in his second solo photo
exhibition to be held from mid-August at the Movenpick Hotel in Westlands.
“I’m still
deciding whether to include images of cultural ceremonies of peoples that I
took before I envisaged Project 43,” he says.
Personally,
of the images that I saw that Louis has taken since he got into professional
photography, practically all merit inclusion in his upcoming show. But he still
has a few more days to decide what he’ll include in his ‘Project 43” Phase 1
show.
He explains
that he’d like his photography to have an impact and make a difference beyond
any commercial gain. That’s how he came up with long-term plan to shoot photos
and tell the stories of Kenyans from all its peoples.
“I woke up
one day and decided to go buy a big map of Kenya,” he says. “But since I didn’t
know where to begin, I took a pin and just stuck in the map, not looking at
where it would go,” he adds.
That is how
he landed on the El Molo. “I didn’t know a thing about them, so I did a bit of
research and then called a friend who’s a tour guide and he drove me up to Lake
Turkana where I found them.”
But Louis’
discovery that these were an endangered people was a shock. There were only 300
of them left. Plus the last one who could actually speak the El Molo language
died a year ago.
“So the El
Molo have been assimilated into the Samburu. They even speak their language,”
says Louis who feels this discovery confirms the value of the work he’s set out
to do.
How many
other Kenyan communities are in danger of losing their languages and thus,
their cultures since all their indigenous traditions, folktales and songs are
stored in their languages? This is what Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o has been
telling Kenyans for decades. Now Louis’ project is proving Ngugi’s forecast to
be true.
Louis spent
time, heard stories and snapped photos of the Samburu as well as the El Molo
since they live adjacent to one another. But he knows that their dress, dances
and traditions have been photographed many times before, so he intends to
continue his quest heading to places where the people are less accessible to
Western photographers.
Louis’ MFA
program seems to have come at a perfect time since he hopes to complete his
‘Project 43’ while completing his course in Paris. But he also hopes to find
fellow Kenyans who see the appeal of his Project, first by coming to see Phase
1 at the Movenpick later this month and then by following him online at www.louisnderi.com.
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