“If in 30 years, the slums haven’t changed with all the help and
international aid coming in; that tells you that they [foreigners]
become princesses as soon as they enter the slum areas or there’s need
for us [Kenyans] to think and start doing things differently,” says Joe
Kiragu, the photographer behind the photo series Ballerina in Kibera.
The striking contrast between a white ballerina dancing amongst mabati
houses and the curious residents of Kibera is not a very subtle social
commentary. But it is a thought-provoking one. “Ballerina in Kibera”,
uses the former ballerina, Ammy Shelton from London (previously based in
Nairobi), to magnify the inequality between Westerners, who come to
Kenya to help slum dwellers, and people they come to help. Joe Kiragu
likes to tell these kind of stories about “topics either not understood
or talked about,” he says. That is why he set out to portray social
inequality in a way that di$ers from the usual pictures of “sick
children and the likes”. Joe Kiragu believes that hefty salaries and
huge benefits enable some aid workers to live “like white gods,” he
says, adding: “it’s not all of them, but it happens, and I wanted to
tell the story”.
From the depths of Kibera, to the infamous railway line in Nairobi, to
fancy stunts in-between shanties, Joe and Ammy set out to depict the
juxtaposition between foreigners and the lower class citizens of Kenya.
Joe’s next project is going to be in the same spirit of contrast. “Next,
I would like to do a high fashion models shoot with Albinos, because
people can’t imagine them that way. But I do.”
Photo credits: Joe Kiragu
Report by Anyiko Owoko
