NAIROBI 1°17’11.0”S 36°49’02.0”E
It’s been a busy career with some notable highs: winning Kenya Documentary Photographer of the Year for my coverage of the Westgate Terrorist Attack, being shortlisted for the Prix Pictet Award for my Cancer in Kenya work, and winning 2019 British Journal of Photography Portrait of Humanity Award for my image of 30-second-old refugee baby Marion in Tanzania’s Nyarugusu Refugee Camp. I was even invited to become a Canon Ambassador. There are so many stories that stay with me, all through my photography. One memorable and challenging one was documenting a vet and conservancy ranger team in the Masai Mara as they worked to remove a poison arrow from a giraffe, their swift efforts ultimately saving the giraffe’s life. My story highlighted the ever-growing human-wildlife conflict. This was my life for 15 years: roaming across Africa as a photojournalist, documenting important stories, especially the ones least told.
And then it all stopped.
It was a conscious decision to have a family. I even expanded my business GGImages Media four years prior, making it a media agency with a pan-African network of consultants to take the work on for me. When I decided to have kids, I was adamant they wouldn’t rule my life, that they would fit in with me. Of course, life has a way of surprising you! People often ask me, “How do you manage it all?” It’s truly been a slow process learning how to balance being mother and photographer! Four years without going out on assignment like I used to, less income, and no “happy fix” from creating whilst shooting took some adjusting, but I learned to let go and accept what is possible, to create what I can when I can. To find a way to keep earning an income as a photographer and business woman, I had to look for areas in my career that allowed me to work from home and still be relevant. I expanded my media agency GGImages to full time, running the pan-African shoots from my desk. I extended my teaching capacity with online photography workshops for Canon and through GGImages. Repurposing images from my 20-year-career archive has been a wonderful experience: not just finding images and frames of moments I’d forgotten I’d taken, but the fun of dusting them off to sell for magazine articles, like my Ngare Ndare forest image for Travel Africa Magazine, and participating in exhibitions and online print sales, like my tender mother and baby giraffe moment for Prints for Wildlife. Social media also plays a huge role as a creative space to showcase all my photos and stories. Now as a mother of two daughters under five, standards of perfection have had to be adapted. Sometimes, “good enough” is the goal, especially when there’s little time for perfect conditions in photography or perfect parenting. Maximum patience and flexibility are needed, especially when taking my daughters on a photo trip. The battle for window space is fierce, we can’t stay long at a scene, and there’s the constant noise and fidgeting! Embracing this has been quite the challenge, but remembering I’m growing the future of conservation, I try to look at the positives. It has enhanced my approach to photography by valuing spontaneous shots over meticulously planned ones, and learning to frame and shoot quickly before the opportunity goes away!
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MOTHER VOLUME FOUR
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