BALLERINA IN KIBERA

“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.”

For more on Joe Kiragu’s photography, check www.shuttervillestudios.com

Photo credits: Joe Kiragu

Report by Anyiko Owoko