Consistency
by Gloria Mwivanda
When I first got my camera, I took photos of sunsets every day. I thought I’d never get tired of them, but after a while, all the sunsets began to look the same. While I still enjoy watching them, I no longer feel the urge to grab my camera. I moved on to flowers, food, and faces—until everything around me felt old and stale, as if I had seen and captured it all. So, I put my camera away and began to despair. I needed to go somewhere new, to find fresh inspiration, to see different faces and sunsets from new horizons.
And it worked—at first. But after a while, I realised that the sun looks the same here and in Timbuktu, and people are just mirrors of each other.
“So, what do you do when you’ve shot everything there is to shoot?”
I asked myself this question as I left my corporate job to pursue visual art. Not the best thought to have at the start of a creative career, but there I was.
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just keep walking, and the path will form behind you
I started shooting sunsets again. I took self-portraits on days I felt least like myself. I documented my family's birthdays and Christmas parties. I shot flowers, trees, and clouds. I won’t say that I instantly fell back in love with photography or that my creative block magically disappeared. But looking back at the body of work I’ve built over time, one thing is clear: I am closer now to being the visual artist I always wanted to be than when I first started. My compositions are stronger, and my style is finding me—one photo at a time.
Then I learned the secret, a truth I now repeat to myself: just keep walking, and the path will form behind you.
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As I evaluate my work, I notice that my most interesting images happened in unexpected places—during a Sunday morning street photography walk in Nairobi or at a cousin’s birthday party. I see now that much of my work is rooted in everyday life. And even when I’m not photographing, life is still happening, and I catch myself thinking: this moment deserves to be frozen in time.
Consistency and discipline have taught me that you find the way by doing. My best work isn’t in my head or in some perfect location—it’s in my everyday practice. At the core of my visual art is the commitment to capturing authentic Afrocentric stories, staying present, and keeping my camera by my side.
During the Kenyan anti-government demonstrations in 2024, one phrase kept people going: “Record everything. Document everything.” You never know what you’re missing in the moment—or how your documentation will serve history or tell your story.
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So, I follow my own advice. I keep shooting. I look back at the moments I’ve frozen in time, seeing my own growth through them.
The secret? Just do it. Every day.
It’s hard, but, as Bojack Horseman says, it gets easier when you do it every day.
