Böcker av Jan Hoek

The Maasai tribe is one of the most photographed tribes across Africa, but pictures of them that cross the world are almost always from Western photographers who show a cliché like vision of the traditional jumping Maasai. 'My Maasai' is a photo publication in which photographers from Eastern Africa show their vision on the Maasai. It shows pictures of a rapper Maasai, a pilot Maasai, a lesbian Maasai, Maasai architecture, a female Maasai God and much more. This books fights the stereotype image of the jumping Maasai and shows at the same time why African photographers are so much better in photographing the topics in their own region. 'My Maasai' is an initiative of Jan Hoek, in collaboration with Kenyan based photographers; Sarah Waiswa (Uganda), Joel Lukhovi (Kenya), Mohammed Althoum (Sudan) as well as students of the De-Capture Limited School of Photography.

Dutch artist Jan Hoek engages with the nasty, funny, painful or touching things that happen when photographing people. His work reflects the often tricky ethics involved in the relationship between the photographer and model. Hoek saw the Masai people photographed time and again in the same way: jumping in a natural setting while wearing traditional clothing and jewellery. Nowadays, however, more Masai are living in towns with all the modern conveniences that entails, like mobile phones, cars and trendy sneakers. For this photo series, he gathered seven urban Masai in an attempt to find a new way to photograph them. The resulting portraits are both personal and absurd.