Wangari Maathai Edinburgh Medal 1993

In April 1993, I got a call from Ian Wall, Economic Development Edinburgh Council to come take the photograph of an amazing woman. Wangari Maathai, who was in hiding and had escaped the Kenyan government and flown into Edinburgh to be internationally recognized to receive the Edinburgh Medal. It was all hush hush and I sensed a great anticipation. As usual I was carting about the Hasselblad kit and was again faced with the challenge of getting the photograph in low light levels. It was about tea time and I was escorted  to a hotel room in the city. Wangari was a renowned social, environmental and political activist and was to receive the medal that evening. I knew that I was getting the one and only chance to photograph her. I was introduced and immediately recognised her great stature, but also her warmth and humanity. I never like taking portraits with flash and judged that the situation was going to be extremely difficult. The hotel suite was large with windows blackened out with long black curtains. Wangari was friendly, shy and not really up for getting her photograph taken but kindly agreed. I slightly pulled back the curtains and a shaft of light shone through and I positioned Wangari. I had to push the film a couple of stops and even then I could only get away with a shutter speed of 1/30th of a second. I really only got the one shot out of the few I took. It has a camera shake but I am quite happy that the image captures the spirit of one of the worlds greatest females at a time in her life when she was running free. The photograph is a scan of a print I made that even then needed quite a lot of darkroom technique to make an image. Sometimes we get lucky and on this occasion I was really pushing my luck. In 2004 Wangari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace. She became the first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to win the prize. I was extremely proud to have been part of the team that helped give Wangari international recognition. Wangari sadly passed away in 2011. Professor Ian Wall is now Director, Edinburgh International Festival of Science and Technology and Member of the Board of International Centre for Mathematical Sciences. I hope everyone who knew Wangari enjoy the portrait.