During an artist’s residency at the Kuona Trust Art Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, Ugandan photographer Papa Shabani launched a project that centered around elder women of the Nubian community.
For months Shabani worked closely with the elders and took their portraits as part of his ongoing “Queens in Essence” project. He hopes to preserve and explore Nubian history through the series of images. The photographs below are from phase one of the series, which will continue until 2020. The women featured, who hail from Kibra (Kibera), are wearing traditional dress.
images via Papa Shabani.