Beginning and Ending of the World

Lake Turkana at the upmost North of Kenya, is most likely be the place where mankind started. Today it is mainly pastoralists and fishermen sharing – not always peacefully- the scare ressources amongst them in a dry and hot chunk of dessert land that lies isolated between Kenya and Ethiopia. Governments don’t really reach here. The lake, the world’s largest dessert lake, is entirely fed from river Omo coming from Ethiopia in the north. Its existence is in danger as massive concrete dams with associated hydroelectric power plants have been built upstream, a “development” which will eventually lead to Lake Turkana drying out. The consequences for tribes and nature will be desastrous.

In my image selection which is part of a bigger photo project, I tried to capture the atmosphere of loss and scarcity. The desaster is on the horizon and with the ressources dwindling live and human condition will change forever. It is a conflict that is carried out in many countries of Africa, Asia or Latin America: the native population, still living according to their own laws not knowing formal education is colliding with modernisation, capitalism and globalisation.