C&T Publications Eye On Fine Art Photography - September 2014 | Page 12

A Temporary Desert
by Amanda Stadther

When I went to Kenya in 2009, the country was in the grip of it's worse drought in decades.
Spring rains had failed for three years in a row and the devastating cycle of death was unstoppable. Crops failed, farm animals died,
food prices increased by 130%, and both children and adults were dying from malnutrition.
The lack of food, water and electricity increased tensions between ethnic groups and it seemed Kenya's main sources of income,
tourism and agriculture, were drying up too.
I began my trip in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. At first it didn't look like the drought afflicted community I was bracing myself for.
Citizens were going about their lives, the roads were loud and choked and cell phone businesses were booming - to me this was
typical Africa, the Africa I was used to.
However if you looked closer there were signs that all was not well. Young cattle herders with small herds of emaciated cows were
drifting into metropolitan Nairobi. They were standing around roadsides in the dust or any bare patch of land they could find. They
looked lost, utterly traumatized and hungry. Many had distended bellies, a sign of malnutrition.
A few days later I found a guide to take me out to Amboseli National Park, about a half day drive from the capital.
Years before arriving in Africa I had images in my head of lush greenery, abundant food and water, and wild animals as far as the eye
could see.
What I saw was horrifyingly different and I wondered how on earth I could photograph what I was seeing.
We entered the park and the first thing I saw was a desert. Not an oasis in a romantic orange desert with the sun gently setting, but a
sickly white, sun-baked landscape where everything was dead, dying or dehydrated.
I saw a baby elephant who had drifted away from its family. When it realized what had happened he started to run, only to be
pursued by a dusty African whirlwind. The miniature tornado engulfed the little guy in dirt and dust but its mother X\