Behind the lens: Kenyan photographer's journey to global recognition

Children were walking home from school in Kachero, near Lake Jipe, along a dusty road when an elephant appeared nearby. It was 5pm.

The children did not scatter or flee. They stopped to watch the animal as it moved around while an adult stood by, waiting for it to pass before guiding them along the road.

Behind the children stood Anthony Ochieng Onyango, 38, camera in hand, gripped by fear as he watched the group calmly observe an elephant at close range.

Speaking to Nation, he recalled his anxiety as he watched the children remain unbothered by the animal.

“I was wondering how these children could stand there so calmly,” he recalled, “when I was afraid for their safety.”

As he watched, Onyango realised that what unsettled him was an everyday encounter for the children, who had grown up sharing their surroundings with wildlife.

“For them, this was normal, they were used to seeing elephants,” he said, “but for me, the moment was frightening.”

But the elephant encounter was not the only moment through which Onyango sought to tell a conservation story. Inside the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, Onyango turned his lens on the mountain bongo, one of Kenya’s most elusive and endangered forest antelopes. He recalled positioning himself at the edge of a tree in January, his camera trained on a narrow forest path used by mountain bongos as they moved through their habitat. He kept out of their direct line of sight, waiting for the elusive antelopes to emerge, careful not to disturb them.

“They did not see me as they approached,” he recalled, “but as they passed, they looked up, and I captured that particular frame.”

Conserve animals

The two photographs, taken in contrasting settings, earned Onyango international recognition in October, highlighting his work documenting both wildlife and the people who share their surroundings with it. His elephant photograph, titled ‘Our Elephant Neighbors,’ won the overall global prize in the 2026 Living with Wildlife Photography Competition, organised by Jamma Conservation & Communities.

“The photo captured the delicate relationship between people and wildlife,” he explained, “where the need to protect human lives intersects with efforts to conserve animals.”

He received the award at a ceremony in Midrand, South Africa, where 34 photographs had been shortlisted.

His work on mountain bongos also earned recognition at the East Africa Photography Awards, bringing further attention to his conservation photography.

“Photographing mountain bongos was not simply about getting the right shot,” he emphasised, “it required patience and access to their protected habitat.”

Through his involvement in a conservation project, Onyango gained access to the mountain bongos’ habitat and built relationships with the caregivers and rangers working to protect the elusive species.

“I had to build relationships with the caregivers and rangers on the ground,” he said.

Fewer than 100 mountain bongos remain in Kenya, and the government aims to increase their population to more than 700 through sustained breeding and conservation initiatives.

While one image captures children calmly watching an elephant along their route home, the other offers a glimpse of an elusive antelope in the forest.

“They captured the delicate balance between human safety and wildlife conservation in communities that share the same landscape with wild animals,” he explained.

The scene at Lake Jipe offered a view of human-wildlife coexistence at close range. The children were not separated from the elephant by a fence or a protected-area boundary.

The photograph, he said, spoke to the responsibility of ensuring that younger generations inherit not only wildlife, but also the knowledge needed to coexist with it. “It really showed me that intergenerational responsibility means that we have to be able to take care of our wildlife,” he said.

That responsibility becomes more difficult where people and animals compete for space, or where routes used by wildlife overlap with those used by communities.

“We can really give room for elephants to go their own way and take on a different route,” he explained, “rather than creating conflict with the wildlife.”

Carrying a camera

Mr Onyango’s interest in the natural world began long before he started carrying a camera professionally. Born in Nairobi, he recalled spending weekends following his father through Nairobi National Park, observing wildlife and trees.

“My father introduced me to nature through our visits to Nairobi National Park,” he said.

He would sketch what he saw and share the drawings with classmates at school.

“I enjoyed drawing what I saw and sharing it with my classmates,” he said.

Those early drawings were a way of communicating what had caught his attention.

Over time, that instinct to make nature visible to others developed into work combining wildlife ecology and photography.

At All Saints Cathedral School in Nairobi, he was appointed environmental prefect. The role involved keeping the school grounds clean, encouraging tree planting and promoting care for shared spaces.

“I learnt that caring for the environment starts with our immediate surroundings,” he said.

At Mbita High School, environmental problems became harder to ignore. Working with a teacher, Onyango helped plant aloe vera around the school compound to stabilise the soil and reduce erosion.

“The dust was a problem,” he recalled, “so we planted aloe vera to help control soil erosion.”

The experience connected environmental degradation with the conditions in which people learn and live. He later enrolled at Moi University to study Wildlife Management, learning about conservation biology, land management and human-wildlife interactions.

Short courses in monitoring and evaluation further developed his understanding of how conservation work can be assessed beyond its stated intentions.

“My studies helped me understand wildlife and the challenges facing conservation,” he said.

That combination of scientific training and practical observation later shaped how he approached photography.

In 2015, while working for a Nairobi-based organisation, Onyango began using photography for more than routine documentation. He started to see images as a way to record environmental pressures and show how human activities affect landscapes.

“Photography became a way of documenting environmental problems and showing their impact,” he says.

One of his early assignments took him to the River Malagarasi area in Tanzania’s Kigoma ecosystem, where industrial salt production was altering the river’s flow and degrading the surrounding landscape.

His work there focused on documenting both the affected environment and restoration efforts.

“The camera does not exaggerate,” he emphasised, “It shows what is there.”

The assignment helped him understand how photography could carry environmental reporting to audiences who might never visit the affected area.

“That is when I realised images could carry environmental stories further than reports alone,” he said. The distinction matters in his work.

According to him, wildlife photography can centre on an animal’s appearance or behaviour, while conservation photography places that image within a wider context.

“It asks what threatens the species or ecosystem,” he explained, “how people are affected and what is being done in response.”

Mr Onyango’s work has also taken him into marine environments, where the relationships between ecosystems and livelihoods are equally important.

In Vanga, Kwale County, he has photographed mangrove roots and seagrass, two coastal ecosystems whose relationship is important to the health of the marine environment.

“Documenting such places is part of a broader effort to make environmental connections visible,” he said.

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