It is easy to begin by saying that the girl has turned away from the camera. But this photograph is too subtle for such a simplistic assessment. Best to stay with the fact that in the absence of a direct gaze we see her wistful manner, a slight turn to the side, as though she is perched on her seat. In my cursory glance, I’d thought the photograph had been taken from outside the car. But I look again and notice that the driver might also be the photographer, attentive to the available light and the transitory elegance in her pose.

— Emmanuel Iduma

I took this photo at home in Lusaka as the kids got into the car. This was just after 6 am in the morning. I had decided to start documenting what the morning looked like for me and the kids as I took them to school. The two boys always sat in the backseat but my daughter sat in the front. Here she had just gotten in the car and was looking out the window. I took the shot.

I like the look and feel of that early morning sun outside the car window as my daughter stares into it. 

I try to tell stories through my photography. Stories that mean something to me. At times I don't even know if what I am trying to show can be captured in an image but I try nonetheless. It's an idea, a feeling, an experience, a memory, a moment. Sometimes it's a thing I cannot explain or put into words. 

— Kalenga Nkonge

Tender Photo is collaborating with Through The Lens Collective to present photographs from Post-Card Africa, a project designed to create new and insightful responses to the history of African representation through photography. Images such as Kalenga Nkonge’s “Looking into the Morning,” taken in Zambia, evoke a new local archive, by approaching creative agency and shared opportunity for local representation as an important framework for actively engaging the continent’s very complex history and representation. Read more about the project here.

Kalenga is a self-taught photographer based in Lusaka, Zambia. “I would say I am driven by the need to tell 'our' own stories as a Zambian and African. That is what I try to capture and show,” he says. More of his work can be found on his website, Instagram, and Twitter.