All images by Osborne Macharia. Used under a Creative Commons License.
Kenya based photographer, Osborne Macharia, has collaborated with a team of talented artists for his Kabangu portrait series. The series tells the story of four men, who work as actual watchmen during the day, but regularly meet up to educate and mentor young talent venturing into the hip-hop industry. The men teach the youth values such as peace, equality, and social justice in hopes of spreading a positive message for the hip-hop culture.
Macharia worked alongside his team, stylist Kevin Abbra, makeup artist Valary Mdeizi, and hairstylist Richard Kinyua, to give the men old school styles that reflect Nairobi’s unique take on the culture in the 80s. The resulting images show off the distinctive personalities of each individual as it relates to their love of hip-hop. All images were shot in the studio using artificial lighting and shot on a Hasselblad H5D-40 with 80mm lens.
Check out the entire series below as well as a video from Macharia giving viewers a behind the scenes look at the project.
See more of Osborne Macharia’s work by visiting his website here.