From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2012
Boniface was the eye of Kenyans during the post-election violence and showed courage and compassion to capture the images across the country that made newspaper headlines all over the world. To capture the moment, he had to be on the frontline where everything was going down.
During the post-election skirmishes he took thousands of photos, some so gory they couldn’t be published. He covered the post-election violence at a great personal risk and sacrifice, more so given the heavy-handedness that the Kenyan police displayed at times.
His coverage of those attacks entailed great danger as, more often than not. He had to falsify his ethnic identity. He had to show courage in documenting the plight of ordinary Kenyans caught up in the pre and post election violence that rocked the country and see the story through.
He has worked on assignments in Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, China, Somalia, Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, France and he covered the election of President Barack Obama in the USA. His work has been exhibited at the French Cultural Centre Nairobi, Goethe Institute, the national Museums of Kenya, The Godown Art Centre and New York at the Tank Art Studio.
His work has appeared in virtually all the important newspapers in the world, from The New York Times to The Guardian, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, The international Herald Tribune, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Boston Globe and the BBC Focus on Africa magazine among other International publications. He is the first Kenyan to be named the CNN Africa Photojournalist of the Year in 2008. In 2009 his post election work was highly commended in the CNN Africa Photojournalist of the Year Award. He went on to win the Award in 2010.
“Your photography is absolutely stunning and tells an important and powerful story for the world to hear,” said Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State in a 2009 letter she wrote to Boniface Mwangi commending his Post election violence work.
Currently he is the project director of Picha Mtaani, a UN-funded initiative that focuses on reconciliation through photographic exhibitions and debate.
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Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Twitter-@8000accomole
Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
UN Disarmament
Conference, 2002