I was walking in the old center of San Juan, Puerto Rico when I heard some wonderful piano music. I stopped at the door and just listened. It turned out to be ‘El Centro de Bellas Artes’ (The centre for the arts) on San Juan’s San Sebastián street. I walked in and the director showed me around. In this school the people were having private music lessons and ballet classes. I saw a great ballet show of the youngest students!
Picture: Stefan Rohner, from the essay ‘The King is coming today’
Before Stefan Rohner (1962) started with photography he worked on oil paintings. This experience with painting gave him a feel for structure, grain and strong composition. Combined with a good feel for light Rohner produced high quality portraits before concentrating on street and documentary photography. More important is the way he approaches people: honest, direct and open. His passion surfaces when he talks about photography. Rohner is represented by Anarchy Images, his work has been exhibited and he has been published worldwide. Stefan Rohner lives in Ibiza, Spain.
* My spotlight category: putting other photographers in the spotlight! *
Last saturday I was shooting some street portraits in Nairobi on my 22 hour layover, when I was approached by a young man who saw me work and said to me; ‘you know photography is a passion’. Since I am usually the one approaching people there I was quit surprised. His name is Kerio Lorot, 27 years old and from the Turkana district in the north of Kenya. Kerio is a broadcast and photojournalism graduate from the Kenya institute of mass communication. Kerio and I spend a good part of the afternoon, we discussed pictures and visited the university. Since Kerio graduated he has not found a job yet. Corruption in Kenya is a major problem and it is more important who you know then what you know. It is very difficult for him to find a job as a photographer so he also tries to get in as a public relation officer or other media job. The problem is Kerio has no money to afford a camera. He lives with a friend in the city, who gave him a small room. His wife and two children live with his parents in the north. Kerio has a cv but no portfolio.
Well, I ended up teaching him for 4 hours about photography, but told him you must get a camera so you can practise every day. I have taken it upon me to help him so I want to start an initiative with my friends at Ball-Saal to start a fundraiser to get Kerio a DSLR camera! I made this picture of Kerio in his old classroom at the university with a small point and shoot cam;))
