Photographing Africa

Photographer and film director Harry Hook, who grew up in The Sudan and Kenya, has been documenting life in Africa for the past forty years.  In this authored film, he uses his intimate images to tell a personal story of Photographing Africa as he crosses the continent to visit remote tribal groups. 

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Harry tracks down five Samburu women he first photographed in Kenya thirty years ago. His aim is to give them a copy of their portrait and discover how their lives have changed over three decades.

The search will be no small task. Samburuland covers an area the size of Wales, and as a semi nomadic group, the women may well have moved great distances. During the course of his search Harry witnesses a Lenkarna Lmuget - a once in a decade coming of age ceremony for Samburu warriors, as they are initiated to become Elders.

There are not many parts of Africa where the powerful lure of the city life is not felt - even in the remotest places, Africa’s gathers pace.  Harry ventures out to isolated communities and encounters people living with one foot firmly rooted in a rich cultural past but who also embrace the here and now of contemporary Africa.