One of the most meaningful projects in my career took place in Lamu, Kenya, where I documented the construction of a traditional dhow. Witnessing this centuries-old craft firsthand was a profound reminder that heritage is not confined to museum walls—it lives in the skills, traditions, and knowledge passed from one generation to the next.
The dhow-building process reveals the interconnectedness of culture, craft, and community. Each plank, each knot tells a story of resourcefulness, artistic mastery, and cultural continuity. This experience continues to shape my understanding of art, not only as something displayed in galleries, but as something lived, created, and shared within communities.
Lamu’s dhow builders work almost entirely from memory and eye, without blueprints, shaping each hull plank by plank using techniques passed down through families for generations. Standing on that beach, camera in hand, I found myself thinking less about the finished vessel and more about the unbroken chain of hands that made it possible—fathers teaching sons, apprentices becoming masters, a whole vocabulary of craft that lives nowhere but in practice. It struck me as a kind of museum with no walls: a living collection, curated by necessity and love rather than by any institution, and every bit as worthy of documentation and care.
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