THE KENYAN COAST
MOMBASA CITY
An island city with a thousand years of trade behind it, and the place where my eye for light was formed. Mombasa taught me to chase deep light. Sunrise breaking over the Indian Ocean and sunset burning across Tudor Creek shaped the way I photograph and film, and they still inspire my work today. From above, the ocean wraps around the island, and the light changes the city by the hour, from soft pastel mornings to fiery evenings over the water.
Old Town is my favorite place to shoot. Its narrow streets hold more than five centuries of history in their walls: carved Swahili doors, coral-stone houses with overhanging balconies, mosques and temples side by side, and Fort Jesus standing guard over the harbor. Swahili, Arab, Portuguese, and Indian influences meet here in the architecture, the faith, and the everyday life of the streets, and dhows still drift in and out of the old port. Every visit, I find a new frame and another layer of the city’s story.
KILIFI
Kilifi Creek is one of the most cinematic places on the Kenyan coast, and I keep coming back to it. From the air, the creek winds inland from the Indian Ocean beneath the Kilifi Bridge, with green forest and the town on either bank. At sunrise and sunset, the water turns to molten gold as the light falls behind the clouds.
My Kilifi photography follows the creek from above and at water level. Drone aerials catch the bridge stretched across glowing water, ships anchored in the channel, and boats cutting white wakes through the turquoise sea. Further up the creek, sailboats rest at anchor in the sheltered water, framed by forest that runs down to the shore.
At the fish landing beneath the bridge, life moves with the tide. Blue and white wooden fishing boats crowd the shallows, and seen from directly above, they form patterns of color against the deep green water. The fishermen who work here are part of that story, and their faces carry the character of this coast.
Beyond the creek, the coastline opens up: coral rock shorelines and wide beaches where the tide draws clean lines between sea and sand, and the sisal fields of Vipingo stretch inland in rows of green. From the ground and from the air, Kilifi is a place of light, water, and quiet coastal life.
WATAMU & MIDA CREEK
Watamu is my favourite place on the Kenyan coast, and the place I return to again and again with my camera. Here the Indian Ocean meets coral reefs, white sandbars, and one of the most beautiful mangrove creeks in East Africa.
At dawn and dusk, the Seven Islands of Watamu rise from the reef as dark silhouettes against the sky. When the tide pulls back, the water drains from the coral flats, and the islands stand on their own, glowing in the first and last light of the day. From above, my drone reveals what you can’t see from the shore: coral islets ringed by turquoise water, reef patterns in every shade of blue, and boats resting at anchor in the clear shallows of the Watamu Marine National Park.
Just inland, Mida Creek opens into a tidal world of mangrove forest and winding channels. From the air, the creek is a maze of deep green trees and bright turquoise water, with speedboats cutting white trails through the channels and sandbanks appearing and disappearing with the tide.
Mida Creek is also home to a living fishing culture, and watching it is one of my favorite things on the coast. Fishermen pole their wooden canoes across the shallows at sunrise, cast their nets in the glowing water at sunset, and move with a rhythm the tide has set for generations. Their silhouettes against the sun, with a dhow drifting through the creek behind them, are some of the most timeless frames I’ve captured.
From the reef to the mangroves, Watamu and Mida Creek are a story of water, light and the people who live by the tide.
SOUTH COAST
Kenya’s South Coast is where long white beaches, coral reefs, and coastal forests meet the Indian Ocean. It’s one of the most photogenic stretches of the Kenyan coastline, from Diani Beach down to Msambweni.
At dawn, Diani Beach comes alive in soft light. From above, the coastline runs for kilometers: powder-white sand, dense palm forest, and turquoise water dotted with boats. When the tide drops, the reef appears beneath the surface, and the waves break along its edge in long white lines that read like brushstrokes from the air. Camels walk the empty sand in the early morning, casting long shadows across the beach.
Further south, Msambweni holds onto the coast’s timeless rhythms. Fishermen raise the sails of their ngalawa, the traditional Swahili outrigger canoes, and wade out through the shallows. The canoes drift across calm water toward the reef, and life on the shore moves at the pace of the tide.
As the day ends, the Kongo River becomes one of my favorite places to shoot. The river winds through thick coastal forest to the sea, and at sunset the water turns to fire, reflecting a sky full of burning clouds. A lone fisherman on a sandbank or a canoe gliding downstream completes a frame that feels purely Kenyan coast.
From the reef at dawn to the river at dusk, the South Coast is a story of light, water, and coastal life.
NORTH COAST
