When it comes to choosing who and where to photograph and what to show, documentary and portrait photographer Sarah Waiswa says collaboration with her subjects is key. Personally, however, she admits, "I'm much more interested in women's stories, stories about women, issues about women." Taken on a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens at 1/160 sec, f/3.5 and ISO100. © Sarah Waiswa
Encouraging African women to further their photography careers has become important work for Canon Ambassador Sarah Waiswa. The documentary and portrait photographer was born in Uganda, grew up in Kenya, and then spent ten years in the USA, studying and working in America's corporate world, before returning in 2010 to Kenya, where she is now based.
With this unusually international perspective, she has a passion for exploring contemporary identity on the African continent. She acknowledges that part of this is "like self-discovery – using photography to tell other people's stories but then also to look inwards to understand your own story." However, she adds, "I studied sociology and psychology, and I'm deeply interested in people and their stories. I think my background informs the topics that I'm interested in working on, but I'm much more interested in collaboration – working with the people who I'm photographing and making sure that I'm not projecting myself on them, but that we are trying to create something together."