THE RISE OF JAN NYAGAKA, A SELF-TAUGHT PHOTOGRAPHER

There is joy in being a creative. Having the ability to bring your imagination to life is quite fulfilling. Jan Nyagaka, a design student at the Technical University of Kenya lives for this kind of thrill, as he is a photographer and a digital artist. He has always had the artistic bone in him as he used to draw and paint back in the day.

Now his creativity is seen through his photography, which he started back in 2017 when it was nothing but a hobby. Through YouTube, his photography grew better and better. He had a breakthrough in 2018 when his hobby turned into a business.

Telling a story through his photos is what drives Jan who is commonly known as Trappi3 on Instagram. His kind of photography is not just basic. He always gives his photos an artistic twist to them. The will to get better motivates him to come up with new ideas each time he has a camera in his hand.

Just like any other art, photography has its own downside. Jan explains how good photography is quite expensive, from the equipment to the locations of shoots. For you to get good results, you will need to invest in it. As a photographer, you also face esteem issues.

Jan explains how going through Instagram and seeing how some photographers are actually making it can sometimes put him down. Nevertheless, he says that these challenges are what pushes him to do better and to learn more. These setbacks give him the motivation to push harder.

Photography is not as easy as people think. It’s not just taking a camera and pressing buttons. However, Jan advises anyone who wants to venture into this field to believe in themselves. “Other photographers on Instagram might put you down because you think you cannot be like them, but remember photography is a learning process,” he says. He continues on to say that it’s never about the equipment but about you and your creativity.

As much as it hasn’t been an easy journey for Jan, he is still hopeful that with time, photography will come to be appreciated and taken seriously. He hopes that in future photographers will not be seen as perverts but as honest people trying to appreciate art. There are other people who use the name ‘photographer’ for their own shady reasons, but that doesn’t mean that every photographer does.

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