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In 1998, ]ahi Chikwendiu was on a summer break from teaching high school math
when he began providing freelance photography to the Lexington Herald-Leuden
By the end of the summer, he was oheered a full-time position at the Herald-Leader
A and three months later was named photographer of the year by the Kentucky News
  Photographers Association.
f i jj   Chikwendiu, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the UK College
)   I   of Arts & Sciences in 1996 and a master’s degree from the UK College of Education
I » ~_·~   I the followin ear, has been on the stahe of the Wézshin tan Past since anuar 2001.
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  I I i His work has taken him to some ofthe world’s most troubled spots. He has
» ag?. photographed a dust storm rolling across a refugee camp in Darfur like a biblical
—»~ I   plague and chronicled a 17-year-old Lebanese girl’s struggle with the loss of a leg after
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“"a**` ein in`ure a c uster om attac , a t e o war are t at in icts a i rate o
civilian casualties. He followed 13- and 14-year-old Sudanese Liberation Army
recruits as they trained in the desert and documented the lives of Sudanese refugees
trying to make a new life in Egypt, where they are unwelcome and frequently attacked,
- - mainly because of their darker skin.
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Q Over the years his talent has been recognized in prestigious competitions by various
h h . international organizations, including World Press Photo, Days ]apan International,
D   Q   D   Q   S National Press Photographers Association’s Best of Photojournalism, Overseas
Press Club, and Pictures of the Year International. In 2008, he also was named
O         ‘|‘ I'] O S Q photographer of the year by the White House News Photographers Association.
Chikwendiu has a great passion for revealing the injustices he sees in his travels.
He is particularly sensitive to the struggles of children at home and aroimd the world.
U II O b I Q   S D Q O K “I can't give up on youngsters,” he says. “I would be in a diheerent place right now if a
lot of people had given up on me.”
ICOII I  m   I   S His unusual name he was born ` `
‘ — ]ames Clay Fishback — is one he created for
himself at age 25. Originally, he thought ]ahi meant “dignity” in Swahili, and
Chikwendiu “life depends on God” in the Ibo or Igbo language. “I wanted to start
a new legacy and I liked what that meant .”
But when he went to a Swahili-speaking country, he found he had been wrongly
informed and learned that ]ahi (or Njahi) is from the Kikuyu language and means
a black bean that is eaten mainly during celebrations. “So now I call myself the
. ., “dignif1ed bean,’ he says.
I ° J _` Last fall his photographs were exhibited at the Art Museum at the University of
{ _ "~\ _ Kentucky and he was the featured guest speaker for the May Lecture Series,
_ _ _ I I" " ‘ \\" sponsored by the Robert C. May Photography Endowment. He told the audience
¢ Y .  about his career and, for example, how fortunate he was to cover President Obama’s
' ¢ A .__ ;   " A _ . inauguration, not from Washington, D.C., but from the village where Obama’s father
‘·· I I   was born and lived in Kenya.
I   “I consider myself more than just a photographer   I would be doing myself and
_\ ( any photojournalist a disservice to simply call ourselves ‘photographers,’” he says.
.- e   “Cameras allow anyone to take a picture, but it ’s not simply the camera; it’s the
I Q  @ soul of the photographer that matters,” says Chikwendiu. “Photography itself is just
·. t' _ a tool for me to sa bi er thin s, `ust like a writer uses a pencil, pen or computer
,_ . h h H Y gg g 1
.   - ° wit t eir ngertips." +_
IX, Chikwendiu, who started out thinking he would pursue film, says he documents E
g I events that are going on in his lifetime so that people in the future will have visual _`§¤
evidence of what happened. E
E
“History is normally told from the point of view ofthe conqueror,’ he says. “I am §
A Child Snacks On O Chicken head in a historian who chooses to tell the story from the point ofview ofthe conquered — ag
Mothorz Slums in Noirobi, Kznyo. because they have aV°‘ee’ mee li
(April 27, 2004) — Whitney Hale es
>>} 24 Spring 2010