The Story

Dhows, Donkeys, and the Oldest Swahili Town in Kenya

Lamu Old Town, founded in 1370, is the oldest living Swahili settlement in East Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, built from coral stone and mangrove timber with elaborately carved wooden doors and more than two dozen mosques. Cars are banned on the island — donkeys and traditional dhows, the handcrafted wooden sailboats that have worked these waters for over a thousand years, are still how people and goods move around. Just south of Old Town, the quieter beach community of Shela stretches along 13 kilometers of golden sand and silent dunes.

This shoot moves between dhow sailing at sunset, everyday life in Shela village, and the coastline in between — including work for Jannah Lamu, one of the island's boutique properties. As a destination and lodge photographer, Lamu is one of the places where the line between travel photography and documentary work blurs completely; the goal is capturing a place that has changed very little in centuries, honestly.

Selected work

Lamu, Kenya