At first glance they seem like scientific specimens, removed from any obvious environment, carefully and obviously composed. However, when contextualised by the title, these dead insects start to tell a story, to document, albeit somewhat obliquely, the context of having water in a country where many people do not. It is tragic, but also absurd, that in Kenya many people do not have enough water to drink yet some have enough to fill swimming pools. Rather than tell this story through images of drought and opulence, I try to explore this wealth chasm using strategies of irony and scale, and to acknowledge my own presence within the context.

Are these documentary photos? In some ways yes; they are the result of a careful observation of an environment and are images that document specific dimensions of that world. On the other hand, the relationship between these images and the context they refer to is certainly tangental. Without the title, what could be deduced from these pictures of dead insects? Yet, without a title, what could be deduced from an image of a drought-stricken country? Maybe it would simply further cement the received images that already exist in our collective imagination.

I’m interested in creating images which are enigmatic and difficult to attribute one single meaning to, but which nonetheless address a specific, real and existing situation. To do this with expected and understandable images often seem to result in claustrophobic pictures that seem to restrict the viewers’ imaginative space. Working with ambiguous images which have a range of possible meanings can open up this process of how the image is received. Rather than directing viewers into one way of reading, the idea is to trigger a relationship with the photos in which stories and environments can be actively imagined.

Thanks to: Mwangalio Tofauti, Iwalewahaus, Roots Contemporaryfull project