As part of 10and5’s Africa Month focus this May, see a few excerpts from The Dark Matter Project below.
Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Brian Siambi is an all-around creative whose love for arts began at a young age after watching his uncle sketch portraits of famous people from the Sunday Newspaper and soon, he started doing the same. Years later, Siambi studied graphic design, which grew into a career. His interest in photography was sparked while working as a graphic designer for a fashion and lifestyle magazine.
Siambi describes his work as contrasting and colourful, and is influenced by the society around him, magazines, nature and photography books. He counts the likes of Julia Noni, Vivian Saasen and Joshua Kissi as some of the artists who inspire his work through their use of fashion photography as a storytelling medium.
His ongoing project entitled The Dark Matter Project aims to prompt black and African people to take pride in themselves. “I’m currently working to publish a photo book titled The Dark Matter Project that I’ve been working on for the past six years. It’s a collaboration with my creative friend Bryan Emry where we create fashion concepts collaborating with different fashion designers across East Africa. It’s a fashion journal series where we tell stories through fashion and I hope the book will inspire Africans to celebrate and appreciate our own,” he explains.
