Mohammed Abd El Rassoul

Mohammed Abd El Rassoul was born in 1922 in Sudan. He began photography after joining the army. In 1954, he became the official state photographer as independence loomed over the country. He worked for the government at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs where he was responsible of capturing official events involving the minister on tour in Africa and Europe. In 1958, El Rassoul went to Kampala to work as a reporter and photographer while accompanying a general from the newly installed military government. This was a common practice in several African countries after the wave of independence. In fact, many African governments employed photographers in order to praise the state’s activities and generally to act as storytellers of power. El Rassoul was of fixture of the Sudanese government. From his first assignment as an official photographer to his retirement in 1982, he served every incoming government, whether democratically elected or militarily installed.

Mohamed Kayari

Mohamed Kayari was born in 1929 in Djibouti City, where he lives and worked for over half a century. In 1950, he developed his knowledge of photography at the Ulman Studio before working as a lab technician at the Tran Quan Studio three years later. His early photographs depict still-life, weddings, and passport photos. In 1962, Kayari joined the national weekly newspaper La Nation as a photographer. Over the years, he became a witness and a custodian of Djibouti memory by capturing images of the port, the city, and the Afar region, as well as official events and family portraits. Kayari also participated in the emergence of a new generation of photographers in Djibouti by mentoring some young photographers such as Amin Mahamoud Ahmed.

Mohamed Amin

Mohamed Amin was born in 1943 in Nairobi, Kenya, and developed his passion for photography in his youth when he got his first camera. In 1962, he dropped out of school to pursue photography and opened his photo agency Camerapix a year after. He built his reputation by recording the celebrations of Kenya independence and learnt the ropes of the journalism industry over the years. Amin became proficient by reporting from dangerous zones and disaster areas usually covered by Western journalists. For instance, he shot exclusive photos of the fall of authoritarian regimes of Idi Amin Dada and Mengistu Haile Mariam. In 1984, his coverage of Ethiopian famine brought international attention to the crisis and eventually helped start the charity wave that resulted in Live Aid concerts. In 1991, he lost his left arm to a rocket missile whilst filming the events of the Ethiopian Civil War. Amin received several prestigious awards in recognition of his outstanding work on major world stories. In 1996, he died when a hijacked airplane from Ethiopian Airlines crashed into the Indian Ocean.