Osborne Macharia is a world renowned photographer from Kenya who has a list of accolades and recognitions, including a bronze and 2 final appearances in Cannes Lions 2015. After the success of his ‘hip-hop grandpas’, a series of photos featuring a group of elderly men from Nairobi who have been famous hip hop artists for over 35 years, the Kenyan artist is pursuing his newest project called ‘Fight club Mengo’. Macharia is documenting his dwarf characters in the settings of a fictional underground world of an illegal and brutal fighting club. The Kenyan’s fight club is set in an abandoned warehouse in downtown Nairobi and the roster of the heroes is made up short statured fighters. Macharia’s fantastical narrative creation, besides being the fruits of his conceptual creativity, has a more poignant message. ‘Society has placed [people with dwarfism] in a bracket of people with disability’, Macharia says. ‘We wanted to change this narrative. We wanted to portray them as this strong, energetic and vibrant people’.
‘Traditionally if one was given the brief to photograph people living with dwarfism, it would be the same old direction of pity, disability and the need for help’, he adds. ‘This was taking a different approach’.
Joakim Mwangi, president of the Short Stature Society of Kenya (SSSK), says the community is stigmatised in Kenya.
‘Parents refuse to take children of short stature to school… parents don’t think much of them’, he says. ‘Even at work we face a lot of discrimination, and we are not respected in any social gatherings’.

For more information on artist and work visit: http://k63studio.com/