Ben Wilhelmi

Street photography, Nairobi

 

 

Note the “Guerlain Paris” sign above the driver’s door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nairobi, street pictures

 

OK, not really a street picture but I like this one for the 2 messages of hope it brings.

 

Some diversity in fashion is always guaranteed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice the vintage Mercedes E in the background. Late seventies model?

Nairobi, street photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kenya, random pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Street photography, Nairobi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nairobi, street pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nairobi, street photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fashion in Nairobi, street shots

 

Stunning style no??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I didn’t say it was always great fashion…

 

Nairobi, random pictures

 

 

Very modern city, Nairobi…but some old cliché subsist.

 

 

White models are still used for ads sometimes…

But this is the norm, African beauties are on display most of the time.

 

 

 

Nairobi, street photography

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nairobi, street photography

Clean water…I hope these business people are more honest than some in Tanzania which pump the water directly from  rivers…

 

Blues, rock, gospel…?

 

The elections are close, ads are all over especially where they shouldn’t be.

 

 

 

The bus stands have been entirely plastered by political posters.

 

Newspaper distributors.

 

Politics and religion…the usual fishy games here too…

 

Yup Guinness is quite popular in Africa.

 

Tombstone business.

Arusha-Nairobi, photography on the road

 

Karine was driving, I was shooting the scenery.

Colors!

 

 

I have to this day never seen a Masai man or boy without a stick! I bet they keep it in bed too.

 

A cluster of shops, quite new and freshly painted.

 

Trousers from the flower power era?

 

Water transport.

 

Sign artist. Quality varies wildly to say the least…

 

KFC in Nairobi. There is none in Belgium…

 

 

giant ads are unfortunately sprouting all over. And too bad if your flat had a nice view… Urbanism is still a funny concept around.

street life in pictures, Nairobi

 

I had dropped the airplane for inspection so I came back to Arusha by bus. The exact same trip I had done in 1999 for my first visit in Tanzania.

As usual I had bribed the driver to have the front seat with more leg room and a large window. Perfect position for street photography.

 

Since the usual landlines were notoriously crap, non-existent, unreliable in Africa, cellphones have been seen a blessing and the continent is picking faster than any other place in the world. This man has even 2 phones.

street life in Nairobi

 

Leaving Nairobi by bus back to Arusha, I snapped “Nairobbery” (the unofficial but most common nickname for Nairobi) life out of the window.

Soetimes I think there are more cellphones in Africa than in Europe

 

Ads are getting big and spread all over in Africa. Maybe the guy is having a hangover from that beer? As anybody can see, while the image is decent, the logo is shit as usual. Low carbs for a beer, who cares really? These marketing people really, no shame to consider consumers as morons….

 

Traffic cops…sometimes they just seemed at best to be considered as information doll, not to be taken seriously. Just the same for robot lights by the way.

 

At least they used a black santa! Good for them. Christianity still has a long way to go to adapt. Swedish look alike, blue eyed pale sick jesuses and maries are still the norm in Africa, basically coming from our medieval pieces of religious art. That probably helped the missionaries to keep the lid on African pride….

 

yep graffiti can be spotted here too. But not yet the same kind as we know in the West. Baby steps.

 

I suppose the road is in much better condition than the sidewalks, if any…

 

Nairobi Arusha on the road, photography

 

from the coach window, just observing road side life.

sugar cane stall. No juice machine, the cane is just for chewing.

 

That’s a new type of contraption on these taxi motorbikes. Not the best way to ride with the pole straight in the face….

 

street sellers at an unofficial bus stands. 

these little stalls are to be seen everywhere alongside roads, selling a bit of everything but mostly food.

 

A venerable Peugeot 104, still in reasonable shape I’d say, though she is having a bad day apparently. Peugeot managed to lose its grip on the African market. Toyota took over….

 

Mishkaki, aka shish kebab in swahili, whatever the spelling is, that’s the nickname given to such a travelling party. Mind you, it could be 4 adults on the same little motorbike.

 

Barack Obama in Africa

 

again only references in East Africa, stickers, paintings, clothes… I never saw any bad references about Obama. I don’t remember any reference to Bush. Only one about Clinton some years back in Arusha. And it was a daladala (public transport in Tanzania) labelled with a simple “ Monica Lewinski”. I heard that bus was forbidden of driving whenever one Clinton was visiting. Urban legend maybe…

Monik, lake Natron, Tanzania.

 

On a dreaded “matatu” (public transport in Kenya), Nairobi, Kenya. Not sure what the artist had in mind: mixing Obama with the Balkan mess…

 

Arusha, Tanzania.

 

Lira, Uganda.

 

Kwa Iddi, Tanzania. “Mgahawa” means cheap restaurant or coffe. It makes me think of “caoua”, slang French for coffee, Arabic origin. The Swahili language picked up a few Arabic words too.

 

Nairobi.

 

Near Nyeri, Kenya. Not exactly an Obama reference but a US flag is pretty rare out there and I thought it was related to this post.

on the roads around Nairobi

 

after shopping and visiting Nairobi nat’l park and the Sheldrick trust, we left towards Nanyuki. Karine was driving and I shot the roadside life. Fascinating activity, road driving doesn’t look so boring anymore if one pays attention to details.

nice pink Tshirt. These people are waiting for the matatus. Notice the guy waiting with the truck shaft. I don’t know how that metal thing is going to fit in the bus between the passengers. Or on the roff attached with a piece of string.…I admit the Kenyan matatus are less overloaded than the Tanzanian daladalas. Some bills were passed some years ago, with driver strikes along of course, to have one person per seat in any vehicle. Quite a progress.

 

here is a matatu driver with some sense of humor. Client …

and Pilot! Friendly guy though. An extreme rare feat among those guys.

 

tree nursery, similar to Tanzania.

 

roadside stall.

 

this headgear is not rare in Kenya, unseen in Tanzania though. I don’t know the meaning…

 

pineapple sellers.

 

colorful school bus.

 

Coca Cola is all over the place in Kenya and in Tanzania but the ads are not the same, except the bright red color.

Nairobi nat’l park, part 2

 

maybe I forgot to mention that to the south the park is open to the outside. So one visitor is never guaranteed to spot the same animals all year long.

a Cape eland (en fr.: un éland du Cap), probably a male according to the greyish color.

and more likely a female for the brown tone. And a bit of  Nairobi skyline on the horizon.

 

Nairobi skyline. Impalas and zebras.

this kind of castle overlooks the park, I think there was a fence in the middle of the ravine. How cool is that, a mansion on the edge of a little valley and a park??

broader view.

Nairobi nat’l park

Yes Nairobi nat’l park as in a park sneaking into Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. It’s probably a unique feat in the world. Let’s bow for once to politicians who didn’t sell that precious land (117 sq km) to real estate companies and other investors.

Sneaking in the city, here is a proof. That impala enjoys the Nairobi  skyline. I’ve been overflying that park many times over the years, Wilson airport lies on the northern fence, and never had a chance or will to visit it. Well, if one gets trapped in Nairobi for half day or a full day, it’s worth visiting.

Some dear friends were getting married in Nanyuki so Karine and I took a week off and decided to discover some bits of Kenya. Before heading north we spared a few days in Nairobi for decent shopping, great food, visiting this park and an animal orphanage.

 

giraffes on a slope.

 

cape elands, giraffes, zebras…

Thomson gazelles.

 

 

Hartebeests.