Jamila Hassan: The Cultural Photographer

Moments from Jamila Hassan’s childhood are still available today thanks to her father’s love for capturing moments. From funny photos to cringe worthy videos, Jamila has these physical reminders to revisit her younger years. But her journey into professional photography wasn’t tethered to the family photo album, though her creative spirit could easily be a replica of her father’s own. That, and chance were the genesis of the career that followed.

But back to a time between childhood and present.

Having lived in Mombasa for most of her life, Jamila experienced a new side of entity when she joined the Metropolitan State University in the US to study communications. Unlike the conservative nature of her upbringing, life abroad was more flamboyant, and eager to document her thoughts and experiences, she took up blogging. As a communications student, setting up and regularly updating this informal site – even if it was just for her own viewership – helped amplify her written communication skills, and would later be necessary in her work.

She returned to Mombasa in 2011 and started working at Gulf African Bank. Eager to find a new pass-time that would keep her busy and entertained, Jamila started organizing and hosting local poetry events and showcases with other Poetry enthusiasts. These attracted Mombasa-based creatives and gave her a thrill she didn’t quite know she had in her. At work, a personality test made things clearer; she had the vibrant personality of a creative and perhaps it was worth exploring.

The decision to explore her creative side came in 2013. Instagram was the new, trendy mobile application that people around the world had jumped onto and Kenya wasn’t left behind in this trend. Of interest to Jamila were the Nairobi-based photographers who used the application to highlight life, scenery and culture in the capital. Excited by the diversity of these images and how they celebrated Nairobi, Jamila was inspired to capture life in Mombasa. Using the available devices – her mobile phone and a tablet – Jamila started sharing Mombasa’s unique-ness to give a new and fresh perspectives to the everyday stories in the media. But she soon realized that quality could only be achieved with a proper camera.

Her entry level device was a Nikon D-3100 and with it she toyed with different settings, slowly understanding aspects that go into good photography. The photos didn’t go to waste, but were shared on Instagram with the catchy hashtag – #LifeInMombasa. When a close friend asked her to take up blogging again and incorporate her images within her articles, Jamila jumped at the chance. Her domain name was inspired by her catchy hashtag and just like that, Jamila was back to blogging while managing a growing Instagram account. A year into starting Life in Mombasa, Jamila quit her job and dedicated her time to the blog while she searched for paying freelance jobs.

When she wasn’t working, she was amplifying her camera skills. She attended a workshop by the Nikon School of Photography held in October 2016 and turned to YouTube tutorials that further amplified her mastery. The driving force to learn was her vision. She wanted to evolve her photography to business level and knowing this kept her focused.

As is the case in the journey to mastery, Jamila found her niche in food photography. With the assortment of Coast dishes in Mombasa, there was an endless list of foods worth photographing. Then in 2018 two things happened. The first was that Jamila upgraded her camera and got a Canon. The second was she started a food and product media company called Malkia Creative Media. Feeling unstoppable in her career trajectory, she made her goal more specific; she wanted to be the best food and product photographer in Mombasa – a goal she continues to work on even today.

Life in Mombasa is now an award-winning blog and the Instagram page has continued to gain traction beyond County 001. Jamila’s journey inspires and shows the outcome of focus.

Shurkan Jamila Hassan for bringing Mombasa life, food and culture to the rest of Kenya and the world!