Portraits of Nairobi

Welcome

Portraits of Nairobi is a project about collaboration in portraiture and the
trace of human narrative within an image. It began in 2006 with a workshop
in photography and drawing that gave 21 boys from the Kibera Slum an opportunity to tell their story about life on Nairobi’s streets.

In 2006 Artist David Fulford travelled to Nairobi, Kenya to begin a collaborative portrait project. From a small classroom called Ndugu Mdogo,
a rescue centre for street children in the Kibera Slum, Fulford conducted a two week workshop in photography and drawing for 21 boys, aged 7 to 14, who regularly attended the centre.

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi Province. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters".

"Kibera is an intriguing slum. It is said to be Africa’s largest slum South of the Equator, with a population of almost a million people, though this is most probably a gross exaggeration, as much of what is said about Nairobi’s slums. The level of deprivation and violence, the youth gangs available for hire by local politicians, the “flying toilets”, are all a scary reality that has helped draw attention to some of the most-pressing problems facing Africa’s urban poor. [But] Hope is a common thread that runs amidst the children of Kibera. The younger ones hope for a better pair of shoes or a more caring parent, while those who are old enough to understand the situation dream of a better tomorrow, an assured education, or a chance to escape from the poverty of their immediate forbears."

– Father Renato Kizito Sesana