Capturing the beautiful shapes of motherhood

Nikiwe Samkange spends her days photographing pregnant women. She seeks satisfaction from capturing their pregnancy memories. PHOTO| COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • When her design company failed to launch, Nikiwe began thinking of photography as more than a hobby. When she looked around the Kenyan photography scene, she noticed the biggest chunk of it was wedding and engagement photography.

  • “I had spent some time around weddings and I had seen that expectations are usually very high. I didn’t want to work in such an emotionally-charged environment. I preferred one-on-one interactions,” she says.

Nikiwe Samkange spends her days photographing pregnant women. She seeks satisfaction from capturing their pregnancy memories.

“Pregnancy is just a fleeting nine months. If you do not capture the moments, you might never remember them,” she says.

Nikiwe stumbled into photography. Fashion design was her first love.

“I grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. My mother was a dressmaker and I grew up around sewing machines. When no one was watching, I would pick up little pieces of cloth and sew little clothes,” she narrates.

A career in fashion design was thus a natural choice for her. She thrived and managed to grow a name for herself as a young designer in Johannesburg. Then seven years ago, her husband, Samkange, was sent to Kenya on a job assignment.

“That first year was hard. I had no friends here. It was very lonely,” she recalls.

The two children she had then were in school so all she had left to keep her company was the television. She tried joining a gym but after her sessions, she still had to come back home to the television.

“To fight the loneliness, I went back to my passion of designing clothes. I turned our unused servants’ quarters into a sewing room and got down to work,” she says.

Unfortunately, though, perhaps because she was in a foreign land and the market was unfamiliar, the hurdles were too high for her. The business did not pick. She would get a few calls here and there but the business wasn’t sustainable.

“After a few months, I closed the doors of the sewing rooms and retreated to regroup.”

When she racked her mind for things that she enjoyed to do, photography seemed to be the only viable idea. It had been a hobby of hers.

“In a wedding, all the photography is focused on the couple, never on those attending. Sometimes the couple never even gets to know who attended the wedding and who didn’t. My husband and I saw this and we would go to weddings and photograph the guests. It was just a hobby then,” she says.

When her design company failed to launch, Nikiwe began thinking of photography as more than a hobby. When she looked around the Kenyan photography scene, she noticed the biggest chunk of it was wedding and engagement photography.

“I had spent some time around weddings and I had seen that expectations are usually very high. I didn’t want to work in such an emotionally-charged environment. I preferred one-on-one interactions,” she says.

So she dismissed the idea of wedding photography. She remembered having had enjoyable experiences during her own baby bump photo shoots. What if she could carve a niche for herself as a maternity photographer?

FIRST CLIENT ON FACEBOOK

As soon as the idea set in her head, she registered Mom’s Nest Photography and cleaned out her garage to create studio space. Luckily for her, she already had the cameras she needed for her trade. Within two weeks of setting up, she had found her first client on Facebook.

This time round she knew not to expect too much too soon, so she gave each job her best shot and then waited. Six years in, her patience has paid off.

“Some of those very first clients have now had other children and come back for more shoots. That to me is a big compliment,” she says.

Looking back from when she started, the photography industry in Kenya has grown. So has the competition. To counter this, she concentrates on getting the clients to relax. This she says, is the only way you can capture them in their (best) element.

“Being a woman has worked for me because it is easier to get my clients to be themselves. I also love cracking jokes and this comes in handy when easing tension during shoots.”

Nikiwe is working on opening photography houses in other cities around Africa. At the moment, she has made Kenya her second home.

NIKIWE’S NUGGETS

  • Pursue something that you love. That which you would do for free.

  • Embrace technological advances. She credits a huge part of her business growth to social media.

  • You will not break even in one month, running a business calls for patience.