SHOOTBACK PROJECT - Key Persons
I am twelve years old. ‘Wambui' means that I was born in darkness when the moon was bright. In our language we call it mbui. Our home city is Nyeri. In our family we are four people, one brother and three sisters. I joined MYSA when I was small and now I am matured enough. I school at Moyyo Academy in Githurai Kimbo. We are five hundred pupils. I like photography because it makes me to promote our country and know more about our country. In Shootback Lana and Kim are our leaders. I would like to thank them for the good work they have done. From the time we started Shootback they help us by teaching us how to photograph. Even our parents are very happy for the good work. Congratulations Kim and Lana so much. I like photographing so much. I will never leave photography forever and ever.
I have a camera and the snaps that I have taken since I entered the Shootback project. I was very happy to get that chance.
I joined Shootback in order to learn photography and also meet new friends. I am now familiar with different types of cameras. My dream in future is to become a journalist.
My second name means evening, so I could have been born in the evening because my tribe always gives newborn babies names depending on the occasion or time after birth. I am fifteen years old and I am the fifth in a family of seven, living in Mathare Valley. I joined MYSA in 1994, whereby I played football from the age of twelve years until now. I joined Shootback in order to learn photography and also meet new friends. I am now familiar with different types of cameras. My special interests include watching videos, taking photos, reading novels and swimming. My dream in future is to become a journalist. Peer pleasure not pressure.
I'm seventeen, a handsome young man, Luo in tribe and I can speak fluent English and Kiswahili. My hobbies are making new friends, travelling and adventures. Dislikes: gossipers, pretenders (lions in sheep's skin). Likes: forthright, assertive and ambitious people, beautiful things and people. I'm mentally a billionaire. I own a posh villa in the Nairobi suburbs and a fleet of vehicles ranging from a Rolls Royce limousine to a VW beetle. Due to my mass wealth I have been a victim of armed gangsters but I normally tip them off with a token of 2000 dollars. There is no difference between us and other photographers. The only difference is that they shoot and we shoot back. My ambition in the future is to become a photojournalist and a famous one. Through the motivation of our project leaders, I know I will achieve my dream. Bye and Ciao!
I am fourteen years old. My name ‘Omondi' means that I was born in the morning. The size of my family is four and I am the last-born. My mother does some work at Kenyatta University (KU) and my father is a soldier at Kenya Airforce. I live in an area called Mathare North and have been a member of MYSA since 1995. My special interest is football. I like playing football very much because one time one day it will help me. Shootback has helped me to take pictures and touch the camera. I would like to say that we should be serious with our project because our leaders are helping us in many ways.
We have 42 tribes in our country, and each speaks its own mother tongue. I belong to the Kikuyu tribe. ‘Mbuthia' is a Kikuyu name which comes from my father's and grandfather's name. ‘David' is a Christian name meaning the courage and confidence it took to make him (David) kill Goliath. I belong to a family of eight and I have six siblings. I am fifteen and the third-born. We live in a slum called Mathare Valley. There are many people living here, but we have some other slums like Korogocho, Majengo and Kibera. I am proud of Mathare Valley. MYSA, our self-help youth group, has many activities such as AIDS awareness, gender partnership, sports and photography. Through MYSA I have become a peer educator and now I am a member of the Shootback Team. My ambition in life is to be a professional photojournalist and football coach.
My last name in my language (Luo) means that when my mother was pregnant she liked to eat a lot. I am fourteen and the third-born in my family of two brothers and three sisters, together with my mother and father. We live in Dandora estate which is very noisy. With Shootback, MYSA introduced a new thought for us - photography. I was interested in taking photos and I have achieved a lot. Apart from knowing how to handle expensive cameras, I also know how to position myself towards the light which plays a big role in photographing. My hobbies are playing football, swimming, taking photos, sharing new ideas, listening to music and rapping. On our football team I am the captain. My ambition in life is to become a professional journalist. I like taking pictures so when I am sad I can look at them and smile at myself.
I am a Luo by tribe (Nilote). ‘Otieno' means ‘night'; this shows that I was born at night. I am fifteen years old. I am in my final class in secondary school. I am the third-born in a family of six living in a big slum called Mathare Valley. We live in a single room all together. I joined MYSA as a young talented footballer at age ten, playing in the MYSA league for under-twelve boys. Now I am playing in the under-sixteen league. I joined the Shootback project because I wanted to know how photos were made. Now I know how to take good photographs. Apart from taking photographs, I like reading novels, listening to reggae music and watching movies. My main goal is to be a professional photographer and footballer.
I like the Shootback project so much - it has taught me how to use the camera and the Shootback teachers have taught me how to take the best pictures.
I'm sixteen years old and schooling at St. Dominic Savio's. We are eleven people in our family. My hobbies are playing football, watching movies, reading storybooks, novels and socializing. Strangers are friends you don't know. My favourite subjects are social ethics and biology. I'm happy to be among the Shootback Team. The aim of it is to know more about photography.
I am fifteen and my favourite hobbies are football and being a professional photographer. I also like having haircuts. I play for a team called Sanpadros. I'm the only goalkeeper. We play on a gravel pitch. Almost everybody plays barefooted, but I play with my own boots. Shootback has helped me to know how to focus cameras, use the shutter, write captions, etc. I know I am ready to become a professional. My happiest day was when we went to the museum because my pictures were sharp and displayed on the walls. Many people were looking at and discussing my pictures which made me feel like I was a professional photographer. Now I feel famous because many people saw my name and pictures. Others asked me if I was James and told me how beautiful my pictures were and that I should go on shooting pictures like those.
I am fourteen and the last-born in a family of five. I live in an estate known as Dandora. I have been a MYSA member since ‘I 994. I like reading novels, playing football, listening to music, watching movies and exchanging ideas. I am a great footballer indeed. As far as Shootback is concerned, I like to take pictures in the slums and in the estates. My first time to touch the camera I did not know much about cameras, how to handle them, focusing and taking of pictures. But nowadays, I can do so. I can take pictures of different views, slums and even of matches. I am interested in learning how to use the fancy cameras. I can be very proud when I will be able to use those big cameras.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- American Photographer
American photographer Lana Wong started the Shootback Project in August 1997 with Kenyan youth leader Francis Kimanzi to help give young people in Nairobi's Mathare slums the means to tell their own stories. Equipped with $30 plastic cameras, a group of 31 boys and girls, aged 12 to 17 photographed their lives and wrote about them every week for almost three years.
Shootback Project Founder Lana Wong was born in New York and studied fine art/photography at Harvard University and the Royal College of Art, London. She moved to Kenya in 1996 and worked in East Africa as a photographer for various UN agencies. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally and she has worked as a television presenter (BBC), educator, and creative director of a World Bank climate change communications campaign. She is currently based in Washington, DC.
My name means ‘the praised one'. I am seventeen years old. We are a family of six. I joined MYSA when I was twelve. My nickname is ‘BMX' but people call me ‘Sinyorita' becoz I look Mexican. I happen to be a Muslim. Shootback involves taking pictures and learning so many kinds of crazy words of photography. At first, my thoughts were, ‘What's good about taking pictures?' As time passed, I started learning more and more and things started sounding interesting. And that's when I started being interested in photography. I like taking pictures becoz it's a way of showing people what's happening in a place rather than describing it. Always I dreamed about my future but I did not know what to do. Photography is now my hobby which I take as my future coming job. I also like swimming and reading politics.
I am thirteen years old. I live in a house which is eleven years old. My hair is short and I am one and a half metres short. I like my name ‘Moses' because Moses is the man who was given the Ten Commandments by God. ‘Ouma' means that I was born when I bent down with my knees to hunt. I come from the Luo community and am black in colour. I like football so much because it is my favourite game. Here in Kenya the environment is very polluted and we don't have enough place to play so we play in half of a playing field. I would like our Shootback Team to improve their skills by taking sharp pictures and writing something good in their composition books. We are supposed to know how to use different types of cameras like the Yashica and Clear Shot. If you know, show others.
‘Mathengei' comes from thenge which means ‘he-goat', and is used to refer to a brave and strong person. I am sixteen years old and the fourth-born in a family of five children. I have three sisters and one brother. I have been a member of MYSA since 1992 as a football player. Since 1997, Shootback has done a lot for me and helped me polish a talent I didn't know of. My special interest is of course taking pictures around my home area because I think I can make something out of it for my future. I hope that I can be a good example for the rest of the MYSA youths. I believe the project can do miracles for me because I can manage to get a job when the time comes and also it can take me to countries which I hadn't dreamt of going to and I will be able to help my family.
My father passed away in 1990 - but it is normal that death is here. We are only ten people - six sisters and four brothers. I am staying with my mother. But nowadays I know that she is my real mother because my father married another woman and my mother went in 1986. She left me behind. In 1996, my mother died and my real mother came back. First I thought that she was my elder sister, because she left me when I was only two and now she came back when I was twelve. I joined MYSA in June 1997. I didn't know how to play but was interested in football. My effort lead me to Shootback. Photographing is not quite as easy work that people might think, but when you know what you are doing and what you want in life, things cannot be all that difficult.
‘Ndolo' means ‘muddy day', that means I was born on a muddy day. I am thirteen years old, black and fashionable. I am a goalkeeper. I finished my primary education in 1997. My mother said she doesn't have money, so no school now. I live with my mother and four brothers and three sisters in a cubic room in Huruma, in a place called Ngei. I thank God and Shootback because I could have been in the street borrowing money, snatching women's bags or sniffing glue but now I know how to take pictures, how to process film and about the Internet. When I get money I can continue to learn and go to secondary school. And when home is boring, I go to my friends like Mathenge and Julius and then we go to search for better pictures and I call it a day.
Shootback Project Founder Lana Wong was born in New York and studied fine art/photography at Harvard University and the Royal College of Art, London. She moved to Kenya in 1996 and worked in East Africa as a photographer for various UN agencies. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally and she has worked as a television presenter (BBC), educator, and creative director of a World Bank climate change communications campaign. She is currently based in Washington, DC.
Peter Ndolo is the current program manager of the Shootback Project and a freelance photographer and videomaker.
‘Saidi' in our language means ‘a person who is kind, strong and aggressive when he does his work'. I'm fifteen years old. I live in Kayole in a slum area called Soweto. It's one of the poorest slums in Kenya. I am the only boy in a family of six. I joined MYSA eight years ago and I have been able to learn a lot from the organization. For example: playing football, facts about AIDS and taking good pictures through Shootback. My ambition in the future is to become a photojournalist.
‘Atieno' in my Luo tribe language means ‘one who is superior or unique'. We are seven in our family and my mother is the breadwinner due to my father's death in 1992. She has a small business selling second-hand clothes. The money she earns is just enough for feeding us and paying rent. We live in a single room all together. I'm fourteen, the fourth-born, tall in size, blackish in colour and have short brownish hair. I like laughing since people from our area are very funny. I'm talkertive, flexible and in school. Through MYSA, I have been playing football and participating in clean-ups. I'm really thankful for this golden opportunity, Shootback. I'm glad to get such a chance and I'll not misuse it. My hobbies are taking pictures, sharing ideas and studying. My favourite colours are red, green and orange. My favourite food is chicken and rice.
According to our tribe, ‘Waithera' means that I was born during the rainy season. ‘Serah' is a Christian name. I come from a family of seven members and I'm fifteen. We are all girls, without any brothers. I'm schooling at Guru Nantik Secondary, Having joined MYSA in 1995, I have achieved a lot. My best achievement so far was being selected to represent MYSA on the under fourteen girls' team for the Norway Cup tournament last year. I'm also a coach and I coach kids. Apart from football, I have gained knowledge about AIDS. My special interests include playing football, taking pictures and visiting friends. My ambition is to become a professional player. Since I was young. I really dream about being somebody. So aim for the sky before your end of life.
‘Muthoni' in my Kikuyu tribe means ‘in-law'. For example, if I marry and my husband has many sisters, they are my sisters-in-law. I am twelve years old. Our city has many slums and I live in Githurai Kimbo zone. I go to school at Moyyo Academy. I come from a family of four members, whereby we are two girls and one brother plus my mother. I have gained a lot from MYSA and Shootback because I know how to use different types of cameras. My hobbies are reading storybooks, taking photos and watching movies. My special interest is to be a journalist.