Osborne Macharia

Osborne Macharia (born 11 April 1986 in Nairobi) is a self-taught Kenyan commercial photographer and digital artist whose work focuses on themes of Afrofuturism in culture, identity, and fictional narratives. Macharia defines Afrofuturism as “an artistic repurposing of the post-colonial African narratives by integrating historical elements, present realities, and future aspirations of people of color, through narrative fantasy and fiction, to reimagine a new Africa.” He has been called "a master at creating alternate black universes."

Career Macharia did not initially pursue a commercial career in photography.

His path to photography began through a failure. In 2010 he was still studying for his bachelor's degree in Architecture.Then he failed his last unit in his fourth year of studying to gain a degree in architecture. In his year long gap, he found the work of New York-based photographer Joey L.

Macharia is completely self-taught, relying heavily on online tutorials and research to build his skills in photography. Macharia primarily works with an 80mm lens with the Medium Format camera system and Phocus Software and Lightroom. He also relies heavily on Photoshop.

His artwork has been featured by many brands, including Vogue, Marie Claire, Coke, Afro Punk, and BBC. He was commissioned to create original artwork for the film Black Panther and the US television drama Queen Sugar.

In 2017, he spoke at the Design Indaba Conference. In a creative showcase of their work, each artist selected depicted a different Afrofuturistic alterego. Macharia's was "The Eye" a virtuoso who can record and play back what he sees with a digital eye. Specifically, he draws “inspiration from African culture, mythology, and futuristic elements” as a way to comment on topics like race and gender identity.

The first step in his process is collaboration with his team where he collects visual references and develops the story to get feedback.

Macharia cites artist Malick Sidibé as one of his African heroes in art.

Kipipiri 4 One of Macharia's photographic collections is based on the legend of the Kipipiri Women who lived in the Kipipiri forest. The Kipipiri women were four warriors, wives of the four generals of the Mau Mau, who found innovative ways to incorporate their culture and hairstyles in the efforts to defeat British imperialist rule of Kenya. Every full moon, the women would dress themselves in elaborate hairstyles that would be useful in their revolutionary efforts.

Their leader, Bobo, had hair twisted in elaborate knots and curls that mirrored the map the women would use to navigate the caves in which their husbands would hide at night to plan.

Capture Kenya I and II This photographic collection was commissioned by Safaricom, Kenya's telecommunications company on the theme of "This Is My Kenya." He traveled in coastal Kenya for 10 days taking photographs. Macharia said the aim was to change negative stereotypes of Kenya. It translates to "The Chosen Ones," and depicts the Black Panther's advisors in Wakanda named Kokan, Koinet, and the leader Saiton. "Black Sudan" "No Touch Am" "Remember the Rude Boy II- Ghana Edition" "Macicio" "Moon Watching" "Melanin Zero" "The Eye"

Awards

Kenya Cannes Lion Award (2015) Exhibition Afrofuturism in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2018 N’Gola Festival in São Tomé and Príncipe, Central Africa, 2019 Still Here Tomorrow in Cape Town, South Africa, 2019