Photographer Alejandro Chaskielberg's Uncharacteristic Kenya

For those that haven't actually traveled to Kenya, imagining what life there looks like, your mind may drift to the stereotypes of "impoverished African village" imagery: red dirt, barefoot children, mud houses with straw roofs and women in bright prints carrying bundles on their heads. Luckily, photographer Alejandro Chaskielberg dispels these stereotypes with a stunning new series of portraits of people living in the Turkana region of northwest Kenya.

His images are most certainly colorful, but unlike most images we see of African village life, these are composed, staged and--most notably, perhaps--they're taken at night. In fact, Chaskielberg hauled out a couple of generators to light these magnificent nighttime portraits of Kenyan families and communities.

Having directed a number of documentaries, it makes sense Chaskielberg's work here feels so cinematic. As for the choice to shoot in the dark, Chaskielberg says “I’ve always been attracted by the night, because it is the time when the most fascinating things can happen."

Born in Buenos Aires, Chaskielberg is the Director of Photography at ENERC, Argentina's National Film and Audiovisual Art Institute. He started out working for local newspapers and magazines as a photojournalist, and only began exhibiting his own work in 2006. Since then he's won several awards, including the prestigious L'Iris D'Or and the 2011 Sony World Photography Award for Photographer of the Year.

Below we've got a few choice selects, though we urge you to view the rest of his portfolio on his website.