Maasai People
Lasoi and her son Levis during a sunny afternoon
Chyulu Hills is a mountain range in eastern Kenya, forming a protected national park. Maasai communities still live there, and I lived alongside them for over a week, during which they taught me how to plant trees, showed me their dances, and we visited local schools. Midway through the trip, we visited a small village of no more than 10 huts. There I met many children and mothers.
I saw this woman's face, surprised and curious, unused to features like mine. She saw the camera, and I asked her permission with my eyes to take her photo. As I was taking it, she made a gesture with her hand asking me to wait, as if she wanted to show me something. I looked at her again and saw how, very carefully, she brought out a sleeping child from beneath her shawl; she wanted me to photograph them both.
When I got back to Switzerland, I looked at the photos and realised that the picture showed not two, but three people: the hand belonged to her eldest daughter, whose name I never learned. The mother is Lasoi, and the baby is Levis.
Two years later, it wasn't me but a colleague who travelled to the same region, so I couldn't let the opportunity slip by. I had all the photos printed and asked him to find these people in order to give them to them. The prints ended up in the hands of Chyulu Wilderness Camp, and they were the ones responsible for distributing them to their owners, so Lasoi received her photo, just like everyone else. The other images can be found below.
I saw this woman's face, surprised and curious, unused to features like mine. She saw the camera, and I asked her permission with my eyes to take her photo. As I was taking it, she made a gesture with her hand asking me to wait, as if she wanted to show me something. I looked at her again and saw how, very carefully, she brought out a sleeping child from beneath her shawl; she wanted me to photograph them both.
When I got back to Switzerland, I looked at the photos and realised that the picture showed not two, but three people: the hand belonged to her eldest daughter, whose name I never learned. The mother is Lasoi, and the baby is Levis.
Two years later, it wasn't me but a colleague who travelled to the same region, so I couldn't let the opportunity slip by. I had all the photos printed and asked him to find these people in order to give them to them. The prints ended up in the hands of Chyulu Wilderness Camp, and they were the ones responsible for distributing them to their owners, so Lasoi received her photo, just like everyone else. The other images can be found below.
