“I have an eye for beauty in its most natural form, which helps me to capture this on camera and share with the world,” says Abeid. But then you see how he shoots nature nothing like the nature photography we’re often shown of Africa. If they know enough not to imagine images of conflict, there’s a good chance they’ll take their cue from all the photographs they’ve seen of safaris.
we’re all so familiar with are, in a way, a part of that ‘misrepresentation’: ask a European or American who’s never been anywhere in Africa to picture the continent. After all, the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of shots of trees, forests, animals, wide open plains, mountain regions, waterfalls, etc. You’d expect a photographer like Abeid to shy away from nature photography. Luckily Tanzania is gradually being shown in a more positive way to the outside world, because we suffered years of misrepresentation.” Meet Abeid Kumkichwa, photographer, graphic designer and co-founder (together with Abdulrahman Abdulrasool) of Kumkichwa Art Gallery in Dar es Salaam. “I owe it to my country to showcase it in the best way possible.