Sharing Zanzibar to the World: How an African Boy Won the UNESCO Photo Contest

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Africa is a continent that still remains unexplored and closed to many tourists. Remaining in captivity of stereotypes, we know so little about the culture and life of the local population, about everyday worries and familiar realities. To tell the world about Zanzibar, photographer Ashkari Moussa Makano founded the Ash Gallery. Among the photographs placed in the exhibitions, one can see portraits, street photographs and photographs of architecture.

Zanzibar is a native city for Makano, most often he photographs in the old part, where there are many stone buildings. Today he is 27 years old, but he has already achieved success in photography, in particular, he received silver in a competition from UNESCO.

In an interview, Makano tells how he learned to photograph. It all started when, while still a schoolboy, he saw a film camera at home. His father worked in an electronics store and bought a camera for the family. It was treated like a real jewel, and it was forbidden for anyone to touch it. It was important for my father to have a camera, he did not even think about learning to photograph. Makano took the first shots under the leadership of his cousin.

A few years later Sister Makano went to the UK and from there she came with a digital camera. Then the guy began to take really many pictures, trying to capture everything around him.

By 2009, Makano was able to use the Internet. Internet café rates dropped, and he spent hours searching for great photos on Google. Most of the users then watched football matches on the network, and he studied hundreds of frames to understand what the secret of a successful shot was. At first, he took pictures everywhere - during family gatherings, at school, at local holidays. When Makano managed to realize several of his shots, he realized that photography could become a profession.

The Ash Gallery project began when Makano and several like-minded people created an Internet site where users from all over the world could view and order their work. Over time, they achieved success, and today it is a real brand.

Makano says that photography in Zanzibar is not easy. He explains that people here don't want to feel like animals in a zoo. Often, a portrait can only be made during a conversation with a person, when he is ready to open up and tell his story. It helps Makano that he knows Swahili, the official language of Tanzania. Local residents are ready to speak with him in the same language, to trust him with the secret. Makano tries to show the cultural diversity of Zanzibar: despite the fact that this island is very small, its development was influenced by the countries of not only continental Africa, but even India and Europe.

While Zanzibar is famous among tourists for its white beaches and colorful seafood restaurants … I would like to believe that Makano's efforts will open this region to tourists in a new way.