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About the PhotographerJames Muriuki is a photographer based in Nairobi, Kenya. In these photographs, James Muriuki shows builders on construction sites from three points of view: one, builders in action; two, the personal objects they leave behind when they work; and three, portraits of the builders acknowledging the camera. |
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August 8, 2020. © James Muriuki
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November 10, 2020. © James Muriuki
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October 30, 2020. © James Muriuki
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In my search for what is true to me and gives meaning to my very presence, the relationship between my physical environment and myself has come to the fore. I have cared about my self-perception, and how that manifests and changes in every moment of my awareness of it, and no doubt it extends to my physical environment and interactions. They are reflections that I imagine many people have and will continue to have for as long as we relate and think about self-awareness. Similarly, the only way I’m able to express meaning beyond my mind is through things I make and things I say, ideally things and actions that others will see, smell, taste, hear, and touch. I feel that I have to build and create meaning of my senses otherwise they are just that, physical sensory receptions and projections. The meanings are most importantly translations that I build in my mind based on my past experiences, my present, and my future aspirations.
July 6, 2020. © James Muriuki
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July 6, 2020. © James Muriuki
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May 23, 2020. © James Muriuki
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May 23, 2020. © James Muriuki
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Tactile activities excite me, as more and more, we are delegating many of our undertakings to “experts” and we are left to focus on what we are “experts” of. In that sense, the most conspicuous, widespread and present physical manifestation of making is buildings and architectural structures - almost all of us use these structures. It is also in these that the human need and capacity to express self and the collective has grown my interest in this area, partly because I have always wanted to be part of the building process. I have documented works of architecture and buildings for some years now, a process that transitioned to include thinking about, looking at, and photographing local materials that form the basics of most architectural structures in the city where I live, Nairobi. I felt like there was a need for me to investigate the most basic “ingredients” that the physical city of Nairobi, and no doubt other cities too, have used to create, fulfill, and express a variety of traits that end up contributing to the identity of a city and its people.
July 6, 2020. © James Muriuki
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July 28, 2020. © James Muriuki
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August 8, 2020. © James Muriuki
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May 29, 2020. © James Muriuki
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August 28, 2020. © James Muriuki
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November 28, 2020. © James Muriuki
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In the same journey of discovery, I came to appreciate that material itself is not with meaning more than what we appropriate, either individually or collectively. It is we, the humans, who have always and will continue to give meaning (and use) to material that we translate into objects. These objects are primarily utilitarian, but are also an expression of ourselves through their newly created form and function. The people that are involved in the construction of that transition and contribute to the new meanings are at the very center of that process. They have ranged from untrained makers and shapers to “expert” consultants, visionaries, and dreamers, as well as adjudicators of that process.
August 8, 2020. © James Muriuki
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August 20, 2020. © James Muriuki
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September 8, 2020. © James Muriuki
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August 20, 2020. © James Muriuki
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October 27, 2020. © James Muriuki
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November 3, 2020. © James Muriuki
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October 30, 2020. © James Muriuki
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Many times, builders are pigeonholed into the lowest level of the construction social economic hierarchy, notwithstanding the psychological affiliations these hierarchies inevitably develop. In the earlier days of this ongoing project, when visiting the site at which I took these photographs, I could see there was a lot of hesitation for many to be photographed or identified in the photographs. Through my subsequent conversations with them, many expressed their hesitation was associated with their job not being something they wanted to define them. It had something to do with the assumed hierarchy and the “judgement” that they may be apportioned, yet they would rather be identified with the finished structure, despite the fact that they are the ones who spent most of their physical (and no doubt emotional) self putting it together. The finished construction is something they would love to identify with, because it assumes and expresses certain aspects of achievement, no doubt a place where many of them will not be able to afford to patronize. A place for others to come and see, smell, taste, hear, and touch.
September 1, 2020. © James Muriuki
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June 9, 2020. © James Muriuki
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July 18, 2020. © James Muriuki
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