In 2017, the Italian Cultural Institute in Nairobi commissioned Paolo Torchio to photograph the little-known rock art of northern Kenya.

Torchio, a wildlife photographer, took with him John Mwangi from the National Museums of Kenya, and together the two men traversed the arid region to map some of the world’s least known rock art, covering 50 sites in 10 days.

Torchio's work is now on exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute, which opened on September 19, on the sidelines of a conference titled Rock Art, an African legacy by Prof Savino Di Lernia (University of Rome) and by Dr Emmanuel Ndiema (National Museums of Kenya) and hosted by the Embassy of Italy in collaboration with National Museums of Kenya.

One of the most eye-catching image is of a giraffe chiselled on rock that is illuminated by a galaxy of stars. The art is dated between 10,000 and 2,000 years ago. The image was taken in Turkana.

Accompanying the images of the rock art sites are tools found near and around the sites.
“Between 2015 and 2016, l also recorded other features of interest like the stone tools used by early man,” says Mwangi, pointing out an image of a microlith, which was used both as an arrow tip to hunt and a knife to cut up and skin animals.

The most common animal featured in African rock art is the giraffe. Also featured are elephants, camels and gazelles.

“The rock art here is amazing,” says Torchio. “I realised that there is a lot that you don’t see when driving and if you don’t look for it, you won’t see it.''

Torchio is more famous as an award-winning wildlife photographer than a pre-historic man. Mwangi, on the other hand, is an old-hand at relics from the past. He has worked at the Koobi Fora Field Station on the shores of Lake Turkana.

Between 2015 and 2016, Mwangi was commissioned by the Lake Turkana Wind Project to document the heritage sites around Lake Turkana, a requirement by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation to preserve the cultural and natural heritage of the country.