Kenya. Fashion Photography, Kenyan Style.

Ready, steady, click. Pointing and shooting a photo is pretty easy but for those  for whom photography is a profession, they need more than point and click skills to survive in an industry that expects only the best.

  It becomes particularly challenging when a photographer wants to delve in the challenging world of fashion photography and advertisement. The kind of photos needed to satisty the hungry and very competitive  fashion industry must be picture perfect.

   When he could not achieve his dream of being a film director, Kevin Mafumbo, 24, decided to become a fashion photographer in the fast growing Kenyan fashion market. Three years later, he says he does not regret doing it and is now CEO of Mafumbo Media, located in the Kenyan Capital Nairobi.

 He has been talking to Francis Ngwa Niba about the buzz he gets from being one of kenya’s best known fashion photographers.

Kevin Mafumbo. Stylish

Q What does it take to be a fashion photographer in Kenya?

A

Basically, you need to know a lot of models, know a lot of designers and a lot of event organizers. You need to have a very good marketing strategy so that you can have clients. Your final product has to be very good too. When you do a good job, the word goes around and you get more work. You need to also do a lot of research because everybody needs to establish their own individual style.  You get known for that particular style and if anybody wants the style of work you are specialized in, then you have a ready market. I personally specialize in outdoor fashion photography. If you want photography outdoor, you come to me, if you want photography indoor, you go to somebody else.

Q Can you be a little bit specific about what outdoor fashion photography is all about?

A

When a client choses a theme they want, we chose an outdoor location where we will do the shooting. Outdoor photography is photography that is not done inside a studio. Locations can be vary;  we can shoot in a railway station, we can shoot in an open field, we can shoot in a garage or in a forest. Anything that is not inside the four walls of a house is outdoor photography. It is a bit easier than indoor photography because you rely a lot on natural lighting as compared to a studio where you need a lot of lighting.

Model

  Q What are the tools of yout trade? You will obviously need a Camera but what are the other paraphernalia you use?

A

You need a very good camera. I use a Nikon D90. You need a very good lense, I use a 200mm lense and then you need reflectors and you might need some lighting once in a while when you need to shoot in the evening. You can still do a fine job with a good camera and one or two reflectors.

Q Is fashion photography very fashionable in Kenya? Do you enjoy doing it?

A

I love it, I enjoy it very much. The fact that I can do a shoot and from my pictures people buy a product is enjoyable and fulfilling. I also enjoy the fact that I can take a photograph of someone who is not particularly good looking and make them look good and exciting; I can make them billboard material. It is good to know that when you do a shoot, it will be seen by very many people, it has good money and of course, you can become famous.

Q You say you can make an ugly person look beautiful in a photograpgh. Let’s be serious here, you mean you can take ugly me and make my photograph look handsome? What do you do with the photograph to achieve that effect?

A

Fashion photography is an art form. The way you direct somebody to pose, the facial and body features of a person, you can get them to pose or twist their features from a certain angle that could bring out the beauty or handsomeness in any person. So the way a person poses, the way they dress and when you do the shoot, you can do some editing later  which could enhance the photo very much. In the studio, you can change the colour, you can reduce the size of their tummy, you can lenghten their neck.  You can therefore change the way a person looks through the posing, the directing and the editing. Most of the pictures you see in magazines and billboards are enhanced photograpghs. Make up also plays a very vital role in fashion photography. Without make-up, some people will be very very weird. I personally use Adobe CS5 for enhancing pictures and illustrator once in a while.

Model. Posing is important in fashion photography

Q A lot of people across Africa probably don’t even know fashion photography can be a very lucrative profession. How does one become a fashion photographer?

A

First of all, you need to love fashion nd then you have to be passionate about photography. When you match the two, it becomes easy. A photo-journalist who does photography for newspapers, if you ask them to do fashion shoot, they will not do it very well . They are used to pointing and shooting. In fashion photography, you must have an interest in it and you must have the technical know-how, you must know how to direct and how to handle lighting. You also need to know how to dress the models you use. You need to have a good sense of style or have a stylist who does that for you.

Q How did you first get into fashion photography?

A

When I was in the second year in the university, somebody invited me to contest in a Mr University competition. I was also in the journalism club. The journalism club asked me to take photographs of the event if I was not participating and since then, I just fell in love with photography.

Q So you technically started fashion photography by accident?

A

Yes indeed but it was an accident waiting to happen. I used to do photography with my dad when I was younger but when I got into the university, I had the exposure that I needed and got into photography like that

Q Lets get a bit technical here. The camera you need to use needs to be exceptionally good I presume?

A

It must be very good and it must produce really clear pictures. The one I use is 16 mega pixels. The camera needs to be a good one because you will need to play around with the exposure, the white balance and a lot of other things on the Camera. It needs to be top notch.

Q What type of projects have you carried out since you started?

A

I have done quiet a good number of projects because I have been in the business for the last three years. I will just mention a few big ones.  I have done a shoot for a magazine  known as True Love and I also did a shoot for a Dubai based magazine called Elle.  I make portfolios for models and adverts for many businesses.

Q How do you get work? Any particulat tricks you need to use to get work?

A

When I started, I did a lot of marketing.  I did two shoots with ten models, made my portfolio and started going out to offices of magazines, newspapers and advertisement agencies. I present my portfolio to them and leave my contact details with them too. I also do marketing through social networks like facebook. People got to know me and liked my work and that is how I started getting work. I now do a lot of updating on social networks. As far as social networks are concerned, before creating a website, I had a blog, I opened a twitter account and searched for  everybody in Kenya who was in the entertainment, media and fashion industry, I made a poster of about two photos and then will tag them. When anybody responds nicely to my work, I go to their twitter accounts and introduce myself, I do a shoot for them for free and then they will get some business for me. When I get celebrities and do work for them, they mention me to their friends . Facebook is much easier because I just post samples of my work, I tag a few people and I share my content. You therefore need to do some aggresive marketing but your work also needs to be very good.

Kevin Mafumbo also produces music Videos

Q How big is the fashion photography sector in Kenya?

A

The big names of fashion photographers in Kenya are about ten in number. There are however many more young and upcoming fashion photographers too, you could have anything from twenty to thirty in that category. Let me add here that these are the ones I know. There will obviously be some I don’t know. Also, of all these photographers, just about ten of us have specialized in a particular genre of fashion photography. The rest do fashion photography, event photography and everything in between.

Q What advice will you give to someone out there with a camera who will also like to be a fashion photographer?

A

I will tell them to first have an interest in photography and fashion. I will ask them to do a lot of research, look at fashion magazines. Also, they should concentrate on the works of one or two photographers and look at what they do and how they do it. They need to study their style, their lighting, how they do their colours, infact, studying completely the way they do their shooting and editing. The model they chose needs to be good.  At that point, they can do a test project for themselves, get a model or two or their friends, get them to pose for shoots , take as many photos as they can and then start doing some marketing. They have to be aggressive in their marketing because fashion photography like anything in the fashion industry, is not for the faint hearted.

Q Who were the fashion photographers who influenced your work?

A

When I started, there was a local photographer known as Leon Muli His work was very good. His strong point was lighting, he had very good lighting, So I can say I learnt lighting from him. From Argentina, there is a photography known as Salvador Pozo.  I like the way he directs his shoots. If you look at his models, they all have a certain way they pose, the way they twist their bodies brings out some very strong fashion trends. I learnt directing from him. There is also Michael Janson who has a special way he edits and plays with colours. So I basically learnt from those three photographers. But there are many others who influenced me. If I take say 100 fashion photos, I look at them and learn one or two things from them. I should add here that after you do the photoshoots, you need to do some good editing too so you need to know how to do that. However, if you are not good with computers, you can always get someone else to do the editing for you.  But it helps if you do photography and editing especially graphic designs. If you know graphic designs, you can do anything in say photoshop and illustrator; you can play around with colouring a lot.

Q I understand the biggest project you ever did was with a Dubai fashion magazine. Talk to me about that particular project.

A

The magazine called Elle specializes on designers in Dubai and around the United Arab Emirates. They wanted to do shoots with African models but they could not find enough African models in Dubai.  They therefore wanted on location shooting in Africa. They located me on Facebook, came to Kenya and we went out and did the shoot. I ended up doing the shooting because their photographer had an emergency and could not come. Three staff of the magazine came to Kenya, the Editor, Assistant Editor and one of the contributors. We scouted for models in kenya and did the shoot. After the shoot, the models sign a release form giving permission for the editor to use the pictures in their magazine. The Editor came with about 21 different designs that the models dressed in for the shoot.

Q How do you scout for the models you work with?

A

If I have a project that a client needs models, I make a call out for models and they have to be models who fit the description of what the client wants. I do auditions and select the models I need for the shoot. When you become a well established fashion photographer, the models look for you themselves.

Q You are only 24, where will you want to be in the next ten years?

A

In ten years time, I will like to own one big building, one floor will be for the trainning of models, the second floor for  photography and one floor should be for video production. I will hope to be very big then and in a position to do even international projects.

Q Let’s rest your camera here. You also do music videos. Talk to me about that.

A

When I was growing up, I wanted to be part of the film industry. I wanted to be a director handling cameras and all that. It was much easier to get into the industry through the production of music videos because a lot of kenyan  musicians now do them. To be in the film industry, you need a lot of connections which I did not have. I started photography to save money to buy equipment to do films but photography got interesting so I just remained there. However, I still do music videos.

Q You have produced a numbber of music videos. Which is the one you like best and why do you like that particlular video?

A

My best video was a dance hall music video for an upcoming musician called A/ssylum. I enjoyed the video because of the good working relationship I had with the musician. He is more like a brother to me because we have done some other projects together. I did it as if I was shooting my own music video. I gave the project my 100 percent attention. It was the first video that the musician made but when it came out, people liked it a lot and it went viral.

Q If you gave 100 percent time for that, does it mean you sometimes give less than that to other musicians?

A

Yes. Sometimes you are not inspired. Again, sometimes the musicians don’t want to pay you what you charge them while sometimes, the music is not good enough. The artists still wants you to do them a video so you just do it but your heart is not all there.

Q Can a good music video bring a bad song to life?

A

Yes indeed. Sometimes people love the video but complain the musi is dissapointing. The video must sometimes help but generally when the music is bad, it is bad, there is nothing a good video can do to revive the fortunes of a bad song.

Q What makes a good music video?

A

The artist needs to be good, he needs to play good music. A music film producer then needs to use the theme of the music and location well to produce a good video. For example, if you shoot a love song ontop of a hill and another one in a romantic restaurant, the second one will do better than the one ontop of the hill.

Q Who usually gives dierectives on the concept or story a music video has to tell, is it the musician or the music video director like you?

A

In Kenya, eighty percent of the time, the artists tells the director what to shoot. As far as I am concerned, I will have prefered musicians do their music, bring me the song and I do the concept for them.

Q If a musicain comes up with a bad concept, are you in a position to tell them that is no good and you provide a completely different concept?

A

Of coures we do. Sometimes they listen to us, sometimes they don’t

Q What was the worst video you did?

A

Two months ago during the elections, many artists wanted to shoot videos for the songs they had sang around the elections. One guy came, he had a bad song, his budget was low and we had to work with very minimal equipment. That was the worst music video I ever did.

Q kenya just held its presidential elections and there were fears the country will implode again into violence as was the case during the 2007 presidential elections. Were there many music videos themed around peace during elections time?

A

Yes indeed. Most were themed around peace and there were calls for peace before and after the elections. !2 of the biggest kenyan musicains did a song for peace round about the time of the elections. They used about 12 million kenyan shillings to produce the video. This and a nationwide desire for peace around the country helped and there was no violence this time around