Kenyan artist Thandiwe Muriu's fine art photo series called Camo is meant to stand out.
Featuring African women with exaggerated, traditional Kenyan hairstyles in vivid, eye-popping patterns stand against backdrops of the same pattern, Muriu started the series in 2015 when she became fascinated with complex, hypnotic textile patterns.
The psychedelic prints convey a sense of motion and Muriu spends hours sifting through fabric shops in the capital city Nairobi looking for the boldest fabrics she can find. Each print is chosen for its uniqueness and visual magnetism and she places each model in such a manner as to draw attention to their face, hair, and hands.
Muriu researches traditional Kenyan hairstyles (the bigger and wilder the better) and finds ways to amplify and exaggerate them. Deliberately pushing back on Western beauty standards that call for sleeker, more “professional” hairstyles, the artist lovingly focuses upon cultural standards of beauty that she worries are being lost.
The Camo series bucks assumptions about modern Kenyan culture while celebrating its history, vibrancy, and uniqueness. It also puts dark-skinned black women front and center, defying a preference for lighter skin that has taken root even in Muriu’s own country. The portraits examine how we can lose our individual identities to the expectations our cultures place on us, yet each of us has own own beautiful qualities that make us stand out.
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| Thandiwe Muriu |
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