In an era where technology dominates daily life and the natural world often feels distant, photographer James Lewin invites us to look again. His latest series fuses the traditions of portraiture with the rawness of wildlife photography, creating composite images that unite Maasai tribespeople with East Africa’s most iconic animals. Each work is at once a technical feat and a cultural record, reminding us that humanity and nature remain deeply interwoven.
The Maasai are a semi-nomadic people who have lived for centuries across the grasslands of Kenya and northern Tanzania. Renowned for their cattle-based way of life, distinct dress, and profound spiritual connection to the land, they are among the most recognizable and respected cultures in East Africa. For Lewin, their ancestral role as stewards of much of the region’s wilderness made them the natural subjects through which to explore coexistence between people and wildlife.
