Yasuyoshi Chiba

How did you get into photography?

I went to Musashiro Art University, Japan with an interest in documentary movies and started off with photograph which is good training for film. Then, I went to a photo exhibition and one picture decided it for me - it was a photograph of a river - and even if it was still I could discern movement. I saw the potential of movement in still photography, that composition and distance could create movement. I then decided that photography could do what moving pictures could do. I was also taking holography at varsity and was very interested in lighting. I wasn't new to photography, I had also been taking photographs with an old camera that belonged to my father since high school.

So, after varsity I went on a field trip to Nepal and that decided it for myself. I took hundreds of images and it seemed to me that the pictures captured the emotions of my trip. I learnt that photography could also distill emotion. Then, and this was in 1995 during and after the Kobe earthquake when thousands of people died. I signed up as a volunteer and remember instances when victims, one man in particular shouted and threw stones, were very angry with media and photographers but when a photography book came out they were so touched that it had been recorded. Right there I realized the importance of photography and media. Whenever people have been hostile to me when taking photos I remember Kobe.

So, when I got back to Japan took entry-level exams to qualify as a staff photography in one of the national newspapers in Japan, Asahi Shinbun (Rising Sun) newspaper. This was the 2nd biggest newspaper in Japan in circulation.

What kind of photography did you do there?

I did everything. I worked there for 12 years, 8 years in news photography and 4 in magazines under the same company. I worked in 6 different bureaus, in the city, in the rural area, all over Japan took crime scene photos, rural farm life. Everything possible in Japan - I developed a love for nature photography.

Memorable events I covered were the Paralympic Games in 1998 in Nagano after the Winter Olympics, 2004 in Athens. I also did an extensive photo-documentary of huge rail systems in Tokyo during their 40th anniversary capturing what were considered signature cultural moments. I won the Japanese Professional Magazine Photographer's Association Award in 2006 for coverage of fishermen's lives in Toyama Bay, Japan.

That's a long time to be working in one place.

Yes. Around that time I actually started looking for something different. I seriously thought about becoming a freelance photographer and moving to Brazil after I got wind of a huge event that was taking place there that directly involved Japan. I wanted to cover the 100th anniversary of a huge Japanese immigration to Brazil that had taken place. However, my wife who worked at JIKA was informed of an opening in Kisumu, Kenya. So we came here in July 2008 and I started seeking out freelance photography opportunities in Kenya.

Well, something must have changed. How did you get to the frontlines of the crisis?

At first, I was very interested in wildlife photography and spent a lot of time in the Mara but it was quite tough, especially during tourist high season when there is too much traffic. Also, one had to stay cooped in the car and that is no way to take pictures, Restless, I started looking around for other photo opportunities and since I lived in Kisumu I got wind of the political atmosphere in the country. Everyone in Kisumu was talking about a revolution led by Raila and so I innocently decided to follow his path to the leadership of this country.

Nyanza is a very vibrant space and even if I was an outsider the anticipation of a favorable electoral result was very infectious. I wanted to record the trajectory of the people using the Raila campaign i.e their hopes and dreams.

What political events did you cover first?

I followed events and the mood of the people leading up to the December campaigns. I first went to the Kalonzo rally - and it was a great photo opportunity. The whole wiper thing was very photogenic. That was on 23rd December. And then I went to the Nyayo stadium ODM rally a day after. The atmosphere there was different - the majority was youth. Experienced photographers always have a gut instinct about things as they are about to happen.

There was a huge billboard of Kibaki outside and a huge ODM crowd, an air of expectation. And sure enough ODM supporters started climbing the billboard and ripping it apart. And even better was that they did not mind their pictures taken.

Let's talk about Elections Day.

Yes. I decided to got to Langata, Raila's constituency. And the action was immediate. There was a delay in opening up the polling stations and young men started breaking windows. And of course, when he came to vote his name was not on the voting roll. Days later, a huge part of Langata was celebrating - one pat of the process had gone through without an issue and now they waited for the Presidential elections to come through.

When President Kibaki was announced as the winner I knew I had to head to Langata. I am not a writer - I have to experience events first-hand. I went into Kibera for two hours between 6-8 p.m. The famous cry, 'No Raila, No Peace' started that night.

Of course, you were very busy after that.

Yes, I had already started giving my photos to AFP. And there was a lot of interest from Japanese newspapers. On 2nd-3rd January I went to Kisumu where violence had broken out. On the 4th I went to Eldoret to Kiambaa to the burnt church. There I saw my first of many dead bodies. An ambulance driver had been burnt. So I started shuttling between mostly Nairobi and Kisumu.

Things were in full chaos by then. I went to Mathare during mid-January to see a friend and a crowd called to me asking with glee whether I wanted to see a dead body. All the months that I had lived in Kenya I had not realized how many tribes in Kenya-normally all this is not noticeable. That was my biggest realization during the crisis - the emergence of that reality. I started looking at things from a tribal perspective. That became all-important. Ironically, I managed to take many photos because I was an outsider. I was a neutral.

From your pictures that is quite evident. Some are very close to the action.

Yes, when I went to Kilgoris where the Kalenjin and the Maasai were fighting, each side would advise me to get behind them. At some point I was caught in between and had to get behind a tree. As the positions changed now and then each group would shout me to come over behind their side. That was very strange. In Nairobi, in places especially in the Kikuyu areas they would refuse me to take pictures.

How does this experience compare with your life in photography?

There is a festival in a part of rural Japan that involves sliding on these huge logs down a hill. It is so dangerous that there are always one or two casualties but surprisingly the event is never stopped and deaths are taken accidents in the context of a cultural event. The villagers would never think of stopping the festival as it is a form of traditional entertainment that serves as a catharsis. Being in the action, I am not sure there is really any remorse on the part of the participants in the ugly aspects to the crisis. Often the mood was celebratory in a weird way - it was as if a pent up energy had been built up for a long time and had to be released. And of course in such horrible ways because it was so terrible. It is not something I can forget. In the field many kept on talking about their rights, showed a disregard for law, got drunk with a newly acquired power, behaved as if they were realising their identities. And of course politicians recognized this and took advantage. They could see it during the campaigns.

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