Case Studies

Fritz Klemperer

Fritz Klemperer has created a lush photographic book that documents a changing Kenya over a 40-year period...A photographic journey of a people honoring their past while struggling toward the future. The images are at once bewildering and gripping : a baby's birth shot at a startling angle, a proud man lifting the severed head of an ox, a married couple holding hands. This is Kenya — as it has never been shown before.

In Fritz Klemperer's startling new photographic essay, A Ballad for Kenya, depicts a native people torn between the customs of the past and lure of Western culture. Through indigenous poetry and stories, the Kenyans narrate their everyday lives, giving life to Klemperer's hand-colored black and white images.

A story of modernization evolves—illustrating the vast plains and African landscapes but also billboards emerging on roadsides. Elders in traditional dress and others in high heels, wearing watches and western dress. What was once a mud hut, now a hut formed of tin. Old Kenya emerges too - a boy's circumcision rite, women in native dress, a funeral ritual for a child. These images and more reveal both the plight of a people as well as their trust in the rituals and simple lifestyle they have practiced for centuries.

The author acknowledges the assistance of the skilled and thoughtful collaborators at Lumiere Photo, saying "I was especially touched because I am a perfectionist, and even though I kept calling with changes, they still remained pleasant. That makes all the difference in the world."

About The Author:

Fritz Klemperer's father fled Nazi Germany and his mother was a Midwestern Quaker. Fritz was born in 1946 on an Indiana farm. At 18, he became a conscientious objector to the Viet Nam War. At 19, he began serving his two-year alternative service in Kenya. He joined the merchant marine, drove an ambulance, and taught school. His search for emotional freedom was paralleled by the Kenyans' own struggle toward the future. He returned to Kenya six times over 40 years. He is a psychologist who lives with his wife and three children in Berea, Ohio.