The photos in Thandiwe Muriu’s “Camo” book are optical illusions, a beautiful blend of models and backdrops. But there’s a greater meaning behind the portraits and the fashion.

These camouflage portraits celebrate African beauty and culture

Photographs by Thandiwe Muriu
Story by Tristen Rouse, CNN
Published May 25, 2024

The photos in Thandiwe Muriu’s “Camo” book are optical illusions, a beautiful blend of models and backdrops. But there’s a greater meaning behind the portraits and the fashion.

Thandiwe Muriu was 14 years old when she found photography. Her father taught her to use his Nikon digital camera, and every day after school she would rush home, finish her homework and then train its lens on whatever she could find. In that old Nikon, Muriu found an outlet for all the creativity she was looking to express.

“I like to say, before then, that I had all this art inside of me that was looking for an outlet but hadn’t found one yet,” Muriu said. “I couldn’t really draw or paint, but right from my first interaction with the camera I knew there was a connection between photography and I.”

Muriu soon turned her camera toward her sisters. One collected Vogue magazines, and Muriu became interested in creating images like she saw on its covers — images of flawless beauty and high fashion.

The family would create elaborate photo shoots in their garden, using bedsheets as backdrops and aluminum foil to create reflectors. What Muriu didn’t realize at the time was that those photo shoots with her sisters were the first step in a lifelong curiosity surrounding beauty and African womanhood.

The eyewear in this portrait from “Camo” combines jewelry and plumbing tape as a unique celebration of Kenyan handymen.

This portrait reminded Muriu of her desire for long braids as a little girl. The eyewear is constructed from comb covers.

Muriu designs outfits to go with the fabrics she finds for her backdrops. She collaborates with fellow Kenyan artists and stylists to make her vision a reality.

That curiosity is fully realized in “Camo,” a yearslong endeavor by Muriu, a fine-art photographer born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. A collection of the work was recently released as her first book.

“Those early photo shoots with my sisters shaped the messages of ‘Camo,’” Muriu said. “It taught me to appreciate dark-skinned beauty, and so the subjects in ‘Camo’ have dark African skin. I wanted to celebrate everything I had struggled with in my own beauty journey — my hair, my skin and my identity as a modern woman in living in a more traditional culture. Because at its core ‘Camo’ is about beauty. There is a lot to learn about Kenyan beauty culture in the images.”

The images in “Camo” are optical illusions. Within each picture, the model’s clothing and the backdrop blend together in an eye-crossing sea of pattern and color, causing the subject to nearly disappear into the kaleidoscopic world that Muriu has created around them. The name of the series comes from this camouflaging effect.

“It’s a commentary on how as individuals, we can lose ourselves to the expectations culture has on us,” Muriu said. “Yet there are such unique and beautiful things about every individual.”

Bottle caps adorn a subject’s hair. The colorful metallic lids are popped from drinks found throughout Kenya, most notably Tusker, a beloved local beer.

The model in this portrait gazes into the camera with five fisted hands, made from afro combs, within her hair. “Light but fierce, the piece visualizes the gentle power of a woman who is confident in herself,” it says in the book.

Because of this illusionary effect, the fabrics and textiles featured in Muriu’s work play a foundational role in how each image is constructed. Searching through catalogs and roadside fabric shops, Muriu creates the images based on the story she sees in the expressive patterns. She then designs an outfit and works with a local tailor to create it. The result is an original creation made in collaboration with fellow Kenyan artists, rooted in the rich textile tradition of Africa.

Just as important as the fabrics that disguise the model are the hairstyling and eyewear that help pull them from their respective backdrops. Each hairstyle is designed, in collaboration with a stylist, as a modern interpretation of traditional African hairstyles. Each piece of eyewear is designed and fabricated by Muriu, inspired by objects founds in the cupboards of Nairobi households, including her own. The eyewear featured in the images are made from objects she uses every day, repurposed for a second life.

“I always enjoy this part of the creative process the most because it requires me to see ordinary objects as the foundation for exciting fashion accessories,” Muriu said.

The eyewear in this photo is made from squeaky toys to celebrate motherhood with a playful twist. “Raising a child is a monumental task that extends far beyond the scope of a single mother’s efforts,” the book says. “It takes a village to raise a healthy, happy child.”

Muriu remembers when the fans in her school computers would whirr, the book says, “as if protesting against the hot and dusty conditions of Nairobi.” Here, they serve as eyewear.

“Beads have a rich history of being worn for both beauty and to symbolize messages of status, age group and more,” it says in the book. Today, they are surging back into fashion with younger generations.

She maintains a “box of limitless opportunities” — what the introductory text of her book describes as “odds and ends waiting for me to discover what kind of eye pieces they want to be.” She has made eyewear from computer fans, bottle bristle brushes and even tissue rolls. With these repurposed materials, Muriu’s book notes, every image becomes imbued with a nostalgia for domestic Kenyan life and the country’s culture of resourcefulness.

It is only after each individual component is carefully crafted that they are juxtaposed into their final form: an image, composed in-camera, that results in the illusion Muriu set out to create. The images in the book are then presented alongside traditional proverbs. Written in both English and in Swahili, the proverbs pay tribute to the rich oral culture of Africa.

It is through this methodical buildup of decisions, process and meaning that Muriu’s focus on African womanhood becomes clear.

“Kenyan women are known for being able to face difficult realities and unearth innovative solutions from the simple resources before them,” the book says. “By taking often invisible tissue rolls and bringing them to the forefront of the viewer’s gaze, (the portrait) ‘I See You’ celebrates this resourcefulness and ingenuity.”

This yellow brim hat traces its roots to the cover of a plastic laundry basket, one produced by a Kenyan factory known for its distinctive finish. “These baskets have a special place in the local community,” the book says.

This eyewear was constructed with bottle bristle brushes often associated with routine cleaning tasks, to signify the prevalent plastic culture within African households.

In the book, Muriu details times when advertising clients passed her by, assuming her male assistant was the photographer they’d hired. She points out that in post-colonial Kenya, beauty standards favor fair complexions and long, soft hair.

Ultimately, Muriu’s work takes a stand against these expectations, seeking to expand the narratives of beauty and female identity via the tools of fabric and photography.

“’Camo’ is purposefully designed as a love letter to myself and other women,” Muriu said. “I want us to see ourselves in our true fullness — to be unapologetic and harness our power of self-assurance.”

The bursting loops of this African print are meant to bring to mind “the humble atom found in the deepest core of every human being.” The portrait celebrates being human and the beauty of life. The eyewear was constructed from candles.

“Camo,” published by Chronicle Books, is now available.