Shooting North Western Uganda

I left my car in the main street of Arua and took off on foot with my camera. Just about an hour ago.

'Hey muzungu! You take my photo!', I am instantly being called, always by men with their hands plunged in their pockets if not gesturing on how to photograph them. I have become more courageous and now I start ordering them around to get the right light and background. The funny thing is that it sorts of makes it more serious. People are extremely focused and photogenic. No fuss - they just pose and stare into my lense. Smile if I ask them, repeatedly.

However, the last time I told someone how easy it is to photograph people in Northern Uganda 3 angry men in Koboko threatened me with obscure arguments (which I left Peter to sort out as he maintained that you have to leave a dispute in Koboko in peace).

But this was a Koboko exception. And I do ask people first and I do explain that these photos are meant to tell the world outside about North Western Uganda. People always agree that this is important. Sometimes people ask for money for having their photo taken. I never do that. Mainly for the reason that it would get out of hand. And I would rather return some paper copies with their images in stead. This has a high value here.  In general most often people come and ask me to have their photos taken - just check out this photo above and see the amount of people (behind my reflection in his sunglasses) queing up for their few seconds of fame.

I really, really enjoy these moments, and I get absolute HIGH when I in no time manage to shoot some real fantastic ones. Like these beautiful people:

Then life makes very good sense! Unfortunately, I can't load all of the photos I managed to shoot this previous hour. But gradually I will add them to 'People from Uganda and the Sudan'