Baobab Media Visual Artist Feature: Fardosa Hussein

“Live, travel, adventure, bless, and don’t be sorry.”
— Jack Kerouac

Hey! I am an independent Photojournalist focusing on Travel and Portrait photography.

How do you represent yourself with your work?

As an artist, I believe presentation matters; I feel obliged to share untold stories with my audience. When we let other people tell half baked stories about our culture and heritage we are partly responsible for it and that’s where my work as an artist plays a huge role; to tell authentic stories with a personal touch.

How did you get in to visual art?

I was going through a rough patch after I graduated last year. A friend suggested that I should try drawing and painting to pass time. Honestly, it didn’t work out for me. Around the same time my cousin gifted me an iPhone 7 Plus and that’s when I started experimenting with portraiture photography. With the help of my siblings who I use as subjects for my work, I got better at it.

Inspirations?

Again, representation is a key aspect that influences both my personal and artistic life. Creating and telling untold stories is what inspires me the most. More significantly, having the creative space to create (Like YouTube, websites and Social Media platforms) such content has been an added advantage for me as an artist.

When I started out as a YouTuber, vloggers like Brian Kimani and Swahiligal were my go to people online for inspiration and ideas for my videos.

Kenyan Born photographer based in South Africa Cedric Nzaka has also inspired me to look at portraiture photography from a different perspective. His works has in a great way helped me improve how I express what I feel through my subjects.

What do you aspire to get to?

There is a lack of a stable ecosystem to nurture creative’s in Kenya, therefore I aspire to create a space for artists to get together and exhibit their work.

Thought process?

I tend to be more observant with what is happening around me. I draw my inspiration from my surrounding as well as the mood of my subjects (especially when shooting portraits). For my video content, I do research and then write a script which makes it easier for me when shooting and editing.

What do you get out of it?

Wow! I get a lot of personal satisfaction. Having the freedom to create and curate stories from a personal perspective makes me happy. Also, interacting with people both online and offline who appreciate my work motivates me to keep going.

Do you have a quote you live by?

Oh yes! You want change; you gotta do it by yourself. You can’t wait for the leaders to make it better; we have to do it better! Never give up, never lose faith.

Challenges?

I constantly battle with the fear of…what if I succeed? Or achieve my goals in life; what do I have to give up? This has largely been contributed by my restricted upbringing that makes me want to look back out of fear