JAMES NJUGUNA Photographer

James Njuguna Mwaura began his career as a photographer at the tender age of 14 years after joining a photography project, MYSA shootback . Equipped with $30 plastic cameras, together with a group of 31 boys and girls, aged 12 to 17, photographed their lives and wrote about them every week for almost two years.

The visceral images where his images also appeared became the basis of a book called Shootback ,Photos by Kids from the Nairobi Slums ( Booth-Clibborn Editions, London 1999).

The book was launched at the Barbican Centre, London with an exhibition that travelled to the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC ; Staff USA Gallery, New York ; Festival Mundial, Tilburg, the Netherlands ; Bildungszentrum der Handwerkskammer, Berlin ; and Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine in Bamako, Mali.

At the age of 24 he became the shootback project coordinator where he was in charge of the photography project. He was also involved in empowering the youths through photography with a particular focus on the Millennium Development Goals and later on the youths published a book in collaboration with UN HABITAT called Image-in-the MDG which was launched in Vancouver, Canada during the world urban forum in 2006.

Later in 2007 he became a press photographer working with Nation Media Group, the biggest media company in East and Central Africa. His work has been published at all the Nation Media Group Newspapers which are, The Daily Nation, Daily Metro, Taifa Leo, East Africa and Business daily newspaper. In the same year he became the photojournalist of year being awarded by the Nation Media Group.

He studied the Language of photojournalism and advanced visual story telling at the Danish school of Media and Journalism. James now works on documentary projects, commercial and editorial assignments.