How long have you been a photographer?
In high school I loved to take pictures with my point-and-shoot so much that I bought a digital SLR Canon Digital Rebel XT with the money I got for graduation. It's been two and a half years since then and my poor camera has been through at least 20,000 pictures.

How did you become interested in photography?
It must have started with National Geographic. Even before I could read it, I flipped through each magazine and counted the number of animals in all of the pictures. I couldn't get enough of photography as well as the fact that you can take something remote and distant and bring it back to your living room to relive again and again. Besides that experiential facet, photography can bring awareness and incite action as photographs are capable of creating very powerful, very raw emotions. I really believe that they can help to change the world.

What inspires you as a photographer?  What do you like to take pictures of?
I'm inspired by nature: wildlife and landscapes. I'm also fascinated by the interface between humans and wildlife and I love to capture that any time the opportunity arises. Recently I've become interested in portraiture, trying to capture a certain mood or even an entire persona in a single moment.

What inspired you as a photographer in Tanzania?
Tanzania was a photographer's paradise. I couldn't put my camera down for a minute. I literally took 7,500 pictures in just under three months. The wildlife, the scenery, and the people were all spectacular. The animals are impressive and the people are colorful all on their own. I barely had to do any work. The best part was that it was all so new. I didn't have to strive to search for a new angle or put a new face to the subject. Since this was my first encounter with it all, I was seeing Tanzania like anyone back home or as my target audience would be seeing it.

What are your future plans? How does photography fit into your plans?
I have a sort of pipe dream to work for National Geographic. I say pipe dream because it's almost inconceivably competitive. I'd love to either write or photograph for any of their magazines. I'd be getting paid to see new places and share my experiences with other people, and hopefully open minds and broaden worldviews, which is exactly the sort of intellectual exchange I've always admired in their magazine. If that doesn't work out, I hope that I end up back in Africa, in some way working directly with wildlife. Maybe then I'll still be able to use my photography to raise awareness overseas.

Back to Kenya    Next Page