I’m an American photographer and journalist traipsing around Africa on the lookout for the ordinary and the extraordinary, using my camera as a pretext to enter worlds not otherwise available.
This space is a scrap book of web and life trawlings – photography, music, arts, politics, and other sundry subjects. It is also a vanity press for my unpublished (and occasionally) published work.
I found the scarlett lion on the roof a friend’s house in Kampala back in 2006 when I went through a crate of discarded items he and a few other artists had gathered. On that day, I was looking for something and I found the lion: a discarded kid’s toy made in China on the cheap, that somehow found it’s way to East Africa. Something about the hollowed out, paint chipped figurine appealed to my understanding of this amazing continent: I’d never seen a real lion, after all.
Previously based in Uganda, currently in Liberia. Always roaming.
I can’t even imagine the kind of formalities that must go into photographing African royalty. When I wanted to take some photos of the police marching band in Monrovia recently, they made me jump through so many hoops that I just gave up. So getting this many kings and their wives and children to agree to sit for portraits is an accomplishment in and of itself. The fact that Daniel Laine’s photos are fantastic is yet another accomplishment. Check out more of them here.
3 Comments
What is that? A clown’s nose?
I was meant to be the fourth wife of an African king. Everything within me speaks to that destiny. Some day …
Love the deep rich reds in all the pictures.
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I LOVE his photos, and the Fon who gave me my title is in the Cameroon section.
Strangely, my boyfriend hid one of my birthday treasure hunt clues inside his book AFRICAN KINGS just last night, with the clue that led me there saying “Abumbi II” (some nice purple-stone earrings were at the end of the search). It’s the first time I’ve looked at the book in months… coincidence?
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@tumwijuke – I love how you always aim high. Reach for number four lady, reach!
@Kelsey – Does this coincidence mean I will soon have a title and/or a boyfriend who gives me earrings??
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