Nairobi kicks off worldwide photography project documenting lives, identity

A new international photography project has launched in Nairobi to document 100 people across five countries through portraits and personal stories.

The two-year initiative, 100 Portraits of Becoming, is a collaboration between Chinese smartphone maker TECNO and Brazilian-Spanish visual artist Angélica Dass.

It begins in Kenya before expanding to the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Brazil.

Participants register through a dedicated website and are photographed in natural light, without filters, while wearing clothing of their choice.

Their portraits and stories will be published in an online archive.

Dass is best known for Humanæ, a portrait series that pairs subjects' skin tones with Pantone colour swatches to challenge conventional ideas about race and identity.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at UNESCO, the World Economic Forum and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

"As a photographer, I realise that I can be a channel for others to communicate," Dass said. "That is why this collaboration with TECNO felt meaningful to me."

TECNO said the project also seeks to highlight representation in photography and address bias in AI imaging systems.

"Every image shapes assumptions about who matters and how people are understood," said Jack Guo, TECNO's general manager.

The portraits will be taken using the TECNO Camon 50 Ultra smartphone, which features the company's Universal Tone imaging technology. TECNO says the system was developed to improve the capture of different skin tones using a database of 372 skin tone samples.

Among the first Kenyan participants is Alexander Odhiambo, co-founder of enterprise software firm Solutech Limited.

"People are always quick to tell you what you are and where you fit," he said. "I stopped waiting for that. The story that counts is the one I'm writing myself."

TECNO said the first portraits and stories are expected to be published in early August.

The smartphone maker operates in more than 70 markets and has increasingly focused on skin tone accuracy in its mobile camera technology.