Camo

Mesmerising and compelling, Kenyan photographer Thandiwe Muriu’s images generate a hypnotic appeal as one turns the pages of Camo, her first book. Are these portraits of people? Of patterns and textiles? Of the threads of joy all too easily lost in the everyday grind? Certainly, Muriu’s pictures – each of which features a woman arrayed in finery made from the same bold wax print that make up the backdrop against which she is posed – reinvent the conventional portrait in a fabulously fresh and contemporary way. The book also combines the images’ visual inspiration with idiomatic wisdom, as each spread includes a thought-provoking African proverb. Gorgeous on every level.