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Turkana photography exhibition

Thank you for visiting Turkana. This highly anticipated exhibition by Sony World Photographer of the Year, Alejandro Chaskielberg. The collection was created in support of GROW, a movement of people campaigning for a world where everyone always has enough to eat.

View the exhibition brochure (544KB PDF)


Alejandro, who recently travelled to Turkana, documents life in one of the world's poorest communities using the light of the full-moon and long-time exposures to create an extraordinary collection of images.

For the past 40 years, Oxfam has been working in Turkana, north-west Kenya, to support people who have been let down by the global food system. Oxfam's gardening and fishing projects are making a big difference as the people of Turkana emerge from the worst drought in decades. With their pastoralist way of life under threat, people here are trying to find new ways to feed their families. But there's so much more that can be done.

Video: Alejandro Chaskielberg in Turkana

"The work Oxfam is doing is so important. It's giving people the tools they need to rise to challenges most of us will never have to face." Alejandro Chaskielberg

How you can help

The people of Turkana desperately need a reliable water supply. Without it, they will struggle to stay healthy and keep the animals they rely on for food and income alive. With your support we can make a big, life-saving difference:

£5,417 can repair one broken water point

£7,917 can build a well and hand pumping system

£12,821 can drill a deep borehole and install a solar pump

Alejandro Chaskielberg's photographs from Turkana

Photo 1/10 photo by: Alejandro Chaskielberg

Mary Atabo's family used to own over 100 goats but now have only 10 due to the drought. Their family also used to have a shop but it was destroyed in recent flash flooding, now they survive solely on relief food and by selling charcoal.

  • Mary Atabo's family used to own over 100 goats but now have only 10 due to the drought. Their family also used to have a shop but it was destroyed in recent flash flooding, now they survive solely on relief food and by selling charcoal.
  • Nanyiti Alkaram is proud that she can now grow vegetables to feed her family. Years of drought mean she has faced a daily struggle to survive. But now, Nanyiti has hope. Oxfam has helped her community to use nearby wells and hand pumps to irrigate their land. This means Nanyiti can put new gardening tools provided by Oxfam to good use.
  • Frederic Ekuman and his friends take a break from digging for water at the roadside in Kanka Lungurio. Drought means that children have to dig holes over a metre deep in search of muddy water, before carrying it back home – often walking for miles with these heavy loads.
  • Rebecca Eporon moved to Natoo village when her family were killed in a raid. During the drought, she lost all her animals and struggled to survive. Now she is part of Oxfam’s gardening project and plans to own a farm one day. "The gardening project changed my life. I am now able to give the children vegetables to eat and can even send them to school."
  • Most of John Ekono Ekiman's animals died during recent droughts. He was unable to feed his family until Oxfam gave him four camels. "Camels are very important in a pastoralist life; they represent life, wealth and hope. When you have just one camel to milk it can save the family. I remember laughing when Oxfam gave me my camels; it was the happiest moment of my life."
  • Before she got involved in an Oxfam gardening project, Elisabeth Ekatapan was struggling to raise eight children on her own. She now grows enough to feed her children and can sell what she has left over to make a better living. "If I could make one thing happen it would be to have my own business and earn money."
  • Lokesiro Natelem Eseron is part of Oxfam's gardening project in the village of Natoo: "We used to work with livestock but now it’s gone. We’re growing vegetables in the garden for our children and I hope this will improve their health in the future. Most of us now have our hopes in children. We thought that pastoralism was the only life but now we have lost all the livestock, we are sending our children to school. Small projects like this bring us some money so we can support our children."
  • Peter Abwell (far right) alongside other fishermen in the village of Katiko, holding up a new fishing net donated by Oxfam. As well as providing essential tools of the trade like this, Oxfam is also distributing food vouchers to the most vulnerable families here. People use the vouchers to buy dried fish from local traders, providing these new fishermen with a guaranteed market for their catch. Peter owns the local fish shop and says: "People in this village see me as a role model as I gave birth to a new idea of being a trader."
  • Napva Kaanvang and Losike Kangirwa collect water for local women to use on the vegetables growing in nearby gardens. Thanks to Oxfam's gardening project, food continues to grow here even when the rain doesn't fall.
  • Tioko Korima, 20, waters the vegetables growing in the market garden which Oxfam has helped her to establish.