WARREN, CONNECTICUT – We spent the long weekend in Connecticut catching up on our various neglects resulting from the Africa trip, and in my case reconnecting with the soft, warm light and deciduous hardwood landscape of the rural Northeast. There was a autumnal nip in the air and the early evening light foreshadows fall.

Warren Connecticut sunset

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – More infrared, from the IBM building across 57th Street.

57th Street

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – In an effort to get my mojo back a decided to shift gears for a couple of days and shoot infrared (using my Leica M8 and infrared filters.

Park Avenue

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – On my way to some meetings I stopped at one of my favorite spots in New York, Lever House, which has a varying selection of provocative art. Lever House had a new installation of the work of Mike Bidlo, a conceptual artist who “appropriates” the work of other artists, in this case Andy Warhol’s 1984 work “Brillo Boxes”. Bidlo calls this work “Not Warhol”.

What follows is not a photograph. It’s a piece of conceptual art that I’m calling “Neither Bidlo Nor Warhol”.

Neither Bidlow Nor Warhol

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – Another attack of the photo-a-day blues. I’m really focusing on editing my Africa work – photographing New York seems dull. The best i could muster was a shot of a shadow of a water tank out my window.

Water tank

HEATHROW AIRPORT, UK – We left Sunday night for the trip home, via London – over 20 hours including a three hour layover at Heathrow. This was one of those days where even taking one photograph was a burden. The insides of aircraft don’t have that much to say to me, and the world in general seems colorless after East Africa. I take a few listless shots at Heathrow. We are indeed out of Africa.

Out of Africa

NAIROBI, KENYA – Here we are – out last day in Kenya. We went on a “food safari” in local markets with Hubert des Marais (an American from the Carolinas), a prominent chef who has become Fairmont’s executive chef in Kenya (or maybe East Africa). Our first stop was a large covered farmers’ market where local residents bring vegetables grown on plots in Nairobi.

Food Market

Cell phones are the primary means of communications; many residents lack electric power so business that offer the charge cell phones, like this one in the market, are common.

A cell phone charging service in the market

There’s a food court in the food market where it possible to buy lunch. The word “hotel” on the sign means “restaurant” in this context.

The largest foreign food influence is Indian. The Indians were brought in by the English to build the railroad from Mombasa to Lake Victoria. Indians also came to the region as traders, merchants and professionals. Here we see an Indian pastry shop.

An indian pastry shop

This is a former aircraft hanger, from the era when the airstrip was in the middle of Nairobi, converted to a mall for small merchants.

Shops

Hubert des Marais at lunch at Chowpaty, a terrific Indian dive. In terms of Indian regional cuisines, what we appeared to see was everything pretty much mixed together.

Hubert des Marais

Finally before packing for our flight back to New York we managed a few hours in the Nairobi National Museum. It focuses on primarily on natural history, ethnography and geology, geared roughly to a high school student. Here is a group of high school students lined up for admission:

Nairobi National Museum

NAIROBI, KENYA – We spent the morning visiting another remarkable charity: AmericaShare, which is sponsored by our safari organizer. It right in the middle of an extensive shantytown – a favella if it were in Brazil – and it provides a variety of services (including education) to badly at risk children in the area.

AmericaShare

AmericaShare

One of the needs identified by this program is reusable sanitary napkins which facilitate school attendance by teenage girls. They are manufactured on the spot.

AmericaShare

In a study in cultural contrast we had lunch at home with Anna Trzebinski and her father, Michael Cunningham-Reed. Anna was married to a noted artist, Tonio Trzebinski, whose 2002 murder in Nairobi remains unsolved. Here’s a link to a piece in Vanity Fair: Tonio Trzebinski Anna is a talented fashion designer, her father a remarkable raconteur.

Anna Trzebinski

Anna Trzebinski

NAIROBI, KENYA – Sadly, here we are loading our bush plane to return to Nairobi where we have planned a busy day

Bush plane

In Nairobi we visited the David Sheldrick Animal Orphanage, one of the two remarkable charities on our itinerary. Founded by Dame Daphnne Sheldrick the orphanage rescues orphan elephants (the most come cause of the mothers’ death is ivory poachers). The animals are cared for intensively for five years, and then reintroduced into the wild. You can walk among them at their feeding time.

Elephants

Our constant companion on the trip, Patrick, playing soccer with an elephant.

SINGITA GRUMETI RESERVES, TANZANIA – We made a short trip by air to another spot on the Mara River (in Tanzania) known for its crossings. The wildebeest didn’t cooperate so there was little drama in the excursion. We did see a lot of hippos – managed to capture some of my best hippo images.

Hippos

We visited Singita Sasakwa Lodge for lunch and a ride on trail bikes. Singiti Sasakwa is the lodge built by Paul Tudor Jones that I mentioned in an earlier post. Here’s a link: Sasakwa Lodge.

Here’s an image of a burned our area from our bicycle ride:

Controlled burn

Finally, a sunset back at our tented camp – our last in the bush as we return to Nairobi tomorrow.

Sunset