Alejandro Chaskielberg's powerful nocturnal pictures of Kenyan villages

The name of amost any country conjures up an immediate mental image usually rooted in stereotype, stale or otherwise. Mention any African country and whatever comes to mind is almost certainly set against a sun-scorched backdrop, and it’s this automatic associations that photographer Alejandro Chaskielberg enjoys unpicking.

His pictures, now on show in London in an exhibition organised by Oxfam, feature a community in the Turkana region of northwest Kenya, but they’re all taken at night, using full moons, strobe lighting and long exposure to create powerful portraits his subjects and their lives,

“I’ve always been attracted by the night, because it is the time when the most fascinating things can happen,” Alejandro said and that fascination is certainly evident in the cinematic feel of the final photos.

The show at the OXO Tower opens tomorrow and runs until Sunday.