Thandiwe Muriu

Passionate about photography since the age of 14, Thandiwe Muriu grew up in Kenya in a family marked by art, surrounded by a sister who is a stylist and a second one, a virtuoso pianist. She refined her photographic practice during her teenage years, influenced by Vogue magazine and the aesthetic canons in the front page of this women's publication. She took one of her sisters as a model and tried to portrait her with complete freedom.  It is the time of the rise of social networks, her photographs meet a great success and lead her to sign her first commission as a young talent.

Rare woman in the environment then reserved exclusively for men, she pursues higher education in business school and works simultaneously with Mutua Matheka or Emmanuel Jambo.

After graduation, passionate about the 8th art, she dedicates herself definitively to fashion photography and at the age of 23, signs her first contract for an international campaign.

Like her fellow citizens, it is important for her to highlight the natural beauty of women with whom she identifies herself. Her compositions are in keeping with the beauty criteria of a black femininity. Essential models for the African readership at home and from the diaspora too often absent from the front pages of magazines.

Also, she sublimates through her art, black skin and afro hairstyles that deserve to be more than ever valued. Moreover, the photographer reconnects with the glorious past of African empires by using fabric, declined in frank and vivid colors enveloping her subjects.

Determined, passionate, she wishes to spearhead a new generation of committed women entrepreneurs in Kenya through her art, destined to write an inspiring story for many of them. Next challenge? To photograph a cover of Vogue.

She considers the series entitled "Camo" (2015) as a particularly personal achievement marking a decisive stage in her artistic process.