Documentary
Films
Narrative documentary films by Gordwin Odhiambo.
Gordwin's documentary film work, mostly shorts, heavily centers on the human spirit, changing landscapes, and socioeconomic navigation within Nairobi’s informal settlements. His work functions as an insider's counter-narrative to reductive, external stereotypes of low-income urban communities.
His films steer completely clear of traditional "poverty porn," deliberately highlighting joy, deep-seated human connections, and community resilience alongside systemic hardships.
His latest major documentary project, A Portrait in Time, focuses closely on how rapidly developing cities force localized communities to lose their homes, structural spaces, and generational heritages in areas they have inhabited for decades.
His cameras frequently track young men and adolescents navigating tough economic landscapes, examining the creative adaptations, improvised survival tactics, and micro-economies they form within Nairobi.
Grounded in international development and peace studies, his approach highlights ongoing consent and ethical visual representation, ensuring that the local subjects actively co-author how their stories are framed.
Watch: YouTube
Featured
Projects
Apart from photography and photojournalism assignments, Gordwin's personal projects delve deeply into his community's visual culture reparations.
Waiting for the Floods Again
Ongoing personal projectWaiting for the Floods Again is a project documenting Samuel Ochieng who over the years has seen his family suffer the effects of floods in Kibera Slums due to lack of constructive interventions.
Magnum Foundation - A Lesson in Systems Change.
Nairobi, KenyaThe photos in this piece were created by Gordwin Odhiambo, grantees of the Magnum Foundation, as part of a partnership to invite readers into the stories that are shaping our shared future.
Assignments - Getty Images
OngoingRegularly get commissioned by Getty Images. I photograph comprehensive field assignments including with the Gates Foundation documenting localized health and development initiatives in Kenya. This high-profile collaboration highlights my expertise in delivering impactful, dignity-first storytelling for major global organizations.
The Digital Shift:
Changing Fertility Narratives Among Sub-Saharan Youth
Getty Grant - Ongoing
Sub-Saharan Africa possesses the world's youngest demographic footprint, with its adolescent population projected to surpass 500 million by mid-century. Concurrently, digital connectivity is rising exponentially. Peer-reviewed research indicates that digital exposure significantly correlates with lower probabilities of teenage pregnancy by widening awareness of modern healthcare resources.
Reinventing and Adapting During Coronavirus
Tender Photos, May 18, 2022Photographs made in Nairobi during the coronavirus period, later published as part of the East African photography awards winning series in 2020.
No Dignity in Homelessness
I’ve discovered that addressing the issues of homelessness is much more complex than I imaginedA collaborative body of work with the Wanakolo family and other Kibera residents living through housing precarity.
VII Photo Agency Rising Fast
Nairobi, KenyaField work from the VII workshop where he explored the rising trends among urban youth in Nairobi.
Short Doc Films
Ongoing networkGordwin's films, both short, narrative, fiction and documentary, explore various thematic topics. Mostly internal issues human beings are grappling with knowingly or unkowingly.
Agency France Presse / Getty Images
Official Getty Images by Gordwin OdhiamboServes as a professional portfolio. It aggregates documentary photography, photojournalism, and editorial imagery.
Spreadsheet |
Assignment Publications
«Au Kenya, difficile de respecter les distances sociales»
Reportage - Le TempsAu Kenya, les habitants de Marere sont à des années-lumière de la cinquième vague qui s’abat sur la Suisse. C’est dans ce petit village que vit Barbara Fuhrer.
De Lamu à Nairobi, la saga de la lutte anti-charbon au Kenya.
Reportage - Le MondeDepuis 2019, associations et militants accumulent les victoires dans la bataille contre le mégaprojet de centrale électrique à charbon censé voir le jour dans une région protégée de l’est du pays.
REPORTAGE. Au Kenya, la guerre sans fin contre la pollution plastique.
Reportage - L'ExpressAfrique. Le pays le plus industrialisé d'Afrique de l'Est avance à petits pas pour endiguer un fléau : la pollution plastique. Un travail de Sisyphe qui ne plaît pas à tout le monde.
Written by Charlotte Lalanne
REPORTAGE. Des champs aux marchés... Twiga, la start-up qui révolutionne l'agroalimentaire au Kenya
Reportage - L'ExpressHorizons africains. Fondée en 2014, Twiga parie sur le numérique pour offrir des débouchés aux agriculteurs. Les paysans espèrent qu'il fera des émules dans le pays.
Written by Charlotte Lalanne
Massive Urban Growth Considering the African City of the Future
Special Reportage - Der SpiegelNowhere in the world is the population growing as rapidly as in Africa. On top of that, rural flight has translated into burgeoning cities on the continent. It's a problem that is creating headaches for city planners and politicians as they search for solutions.
Curves, crowns and a calabash: Africa's top shots
Profile FeatureA selection of the week's best photos from across the African continent and beyond:
Reinventing and Adapting During Coronavirus
Tender Photos, May 18, 2022Photographs made in Nairobi during the coronavirus period, later published as part of the East African photography awards winning series in 2020.
Good News: The World Isn't That Bad After All
DW Akademie - Journalism Fellows Feature“Bad news is good news” – this motto is deep-rooted across media outlets. Constructive journalism takes a different approach: solution-oriented, positive, inspiring. DW Akademie supports this trend.
Kenyan Bonds Rattled by Election Chaos
AFP - Special Elections CoveragePolitical strife is unnerving creditors to one of Africa's most important emerging markets.
Stay off the grass: The parks and recreation of Kenya’s political spaces
Photo Assignment - The ContinentNairobi’s parks have a long tradition of being political spaces, where Kenyans gathered to challenge a regime or mark a new chapter in the country’s history.
An independent soccer league transforming lives in a slum in Kenya
Publication CollaborationShadows dance together on the dry red earth as the cool afternoon breeze sways the leaves overhead. In the distance, the sound of a whistle echoes, followed by the raucous cheering of a crowd.
NOOR Images Assignment
Photo | Video AssignmentDutch and Belgian Supermarkets Falling Short of Human Rights Standards in their Supply Chains.
Creative
Videos and Mixed Media
Alongside photography which is primary, he engages in production of videos and mixed media projects either as a creator, collaborator or coordinator.
Inside the Dance School Helping Kenya's Teen Mothers.
Fixer - Bloomberg OriginalsIn the first few months of the pandemic, teenage pregnancy rates tripled in parts of Kenya. But an after-school program in Nairobi's biggest informal settlement is creating a safe haven for some of these young mothers.
La Liga Africa x IBL Kibera Social Impact Event
Content Producer / Director - Nairobi, Kenya"Serving as the lead production and storytelling partner for the La Liga x IBL Kibera activation, orchestrating the overarching creative direction and visual identity to document the empowerment of over 400 young girls within Nairobi’s largest informal settlement under the framework of La Ligue D’Égalité."
Women in Informal Settlements Interacting with Novel Technologies
Video + Photo - MIT Media LabArwa Michelle Mboya, a research assistant in the Civic Media group, talks about her interests and specifically her passion for working with and empowering women. From Nairobi, Kenya, Arwa has worked in slums with women and girls, and she knew at an early stage that she wanted her research to interact with this demographic.
International Artists Day - Faith Atieno
Photo and Video - Concern World Wide"I believe it's really powerful for me to use my medium for communicating and inspiring to help bring change in my community - and beyond." Kenyan artist Faith Atieno started a project entitled ART360KIBERA, with the aim of using art as a tool for change in her community.
Short Documentaries
These series of documentaries are mostly side quests during photo projects or assignments."I believe it's really powerful for me to use my medium for communicating and inspiring to help bring change in my community - and beyond." Kenyan artist Faith Atieno started a project entitled ART360KIBERA, with the aim of using art as a tool for change in her community.
Publications | Talks
24 Hours for the Future of Journalism: Nuanced Photo Journalism from Kenya
Constructive Institute - Aarhus, DenmarkFor 24 hours following the sunrise through all time zones on Planet Earth the Constructive Institute brought together key players with the potential to impact the future of journalism. Amongst other questions we asked “Is the way journalism currently filters the world part of the problem causing polarization, news avoidance and trust meltdown in our democracies?” And “How can news become a part of the solution?”
UPPA | A Changing Community and the Fears Ahead
Personal Project - Nairobi, KenyaNairobi is one of the world’s fastest-growing urban spaces. But for communities located near its centre, in historically low-income areas that served the growing city with the cheap workers needed to staff its booming businesses, the mood is grim.
No Wahala Magazine | Reinventing and Adapting Through Coronavirus
Personal Project - Nairobi, Kenya‘Reinventing and Adapting Through Coronavirus’ by Kenyan Photographer, Gordwin Odhiambo, is a project that gives the viewers a glimpse of the shifts and changes that took place in Gordwin’s home city, Kibera, due to a global pandemic.
Constructive Journalism Lab – Meet the fellows
Journalism Fellow - DW AkademieMore than 300 media workers applied but DW Akademie has now selected 15 outstanding journalists from Africa and the Middle East who'll be trained in Constructive Journalism. You can learn more about them here.