SARAH WAISWA
OkayAfrica's 100 Women celebrates African women who are making waves, shattering ceilings, and uplifting their communities.
Sarah Waiswa is based in Nairobi and is known for collaborating with other photographers and creatives to create stunning images. One of the Ugandan-born photographer's most evocative series, Stranger in a Familiar Land, won her the prestigious prize Les Rencontres d’Arles 2016 Discovery Award in Arles, France.
Waiswa’s strength lies in documenting the “New African’s” identity with powerful images. Aida Muluneh says of the East African’s work: “Sarah’s approach to photography is one of the curious gaze that reflects the complexities of her surroundings and of a continent that is still captured by others through a lens which perpetuates clichés.”
The series looks at the persecution of albinos in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the photo story took place in a Nairobi slum with the direction of Ghanaian singer and creative, Jojo Abot. She regularly works with Velma Makhandia of 2manysiblings, but makes a point of filling her Instagram account with beautiful depictions of contemporary life of Africans through her travels and interactions.
She studied psychology and sociology at university and spent a few years in the corporate world before deciding to giver her passion a shot.
Telling visual stories is what Waiswa does best and work is proof of that.
-JO
