Three Ugandan photographers are among the winners of this year’s East African Photography Award, Uganda Press Photo Award (UPPA) and Young Photographer Award.
The East African Photography Award, now in its fifth edition takes entries from Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi and Tanzania. The award was created to shine a spotlight on documentary photography that focuses on people and cultures from the perspective of East African citizens.
This year, the top prize went to Amannuel Sileshi, a photojournalist based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for his story ‘Searching for Peace Amidst Chaos’, capturing the events during the ongoing civil war between Tigrayan separatists and the central government of Ethiopia and its Eritrean allies.
According to the Awards, Sileshi’s visual account of the war “reminds us of a conflict often forgotten by the international media”.
Ugandan photojournalist, Badru Katumba won the Planet category of the East African Photography Award while Stuart Tibaweswa emerged as first-runner up.
Katumba’s photo showed pedestrians and motorists along a road in Kampala as dust and dark clouds billow.
Tibaweswa captured a photo of Karamojong brothers drinking water from a simple hand-dug hole on the bank of River Loidiri in Amudat district. The brothers were herding their livestock when they stopped by a river to refresh themselves.
Andrew Kartende, a freelance documentary photographer based in Kampala won the Uganda Press Photo Award for his photo showing an ironmonger in Kampala making small kerosene lamps out of tin cans for a living. Steel can be recycled over and over again indefinitely with no loss of its essential properties, while at the same time enabling these ironmongers earn a living.
This same photo came in second place in the Human category.
This year’s Uganda Press Photo Award saw a new format introduced to engage with photographers and their audiences in a new and exciting way.
Ugandan photojournalists and photographers were invited to submit a body of work responding to the theme – New Realities.
“My story ‘Next Life’ is very special to me because it’s a narrative to my country Uganda. I wanted to approach the upcycle movement that is taking over the world right now. I choose to do documentary photography because I believe that the stories we tell live on and ca and will still matter 10 to 20 years from now. Photography helps me to see the world and different perspectives,” Kartende commented on his story.
He wins a Canon EOS RP and TS 3140 printer along with other prizes.
This year’s Young Photographer Award went to Isaac Henry Muwanguzi, a graduate of the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts at Makerere University.
Muwanguzi works with Next Media Services as a photographer.
He wins a Canon M50 MK II body with kit lens and a Canon TS 3140 printer, on top of an invitation to participate in the Emerging Photographer Mentorship Programme as well as exhibiting during the UPPA 2023.
“I am very excited to be the winner of this year’s Young Photographer Award. I can’t wait for the opportunities that are going to come up with it, including the mentorship as it will allow me to create a much bigger impact,” Muwanguzi said.
The runners-up in the Young Photographer Award are Lyndah Katusiime and Boaz Kazoora. These will undergo an intensive mentorship programme.
The Young Photographer Award is an educational award geared towards passionate emerging photographers looking to cultivate a career in documentary photography or photojournalism.
An exhibition showcasing all the winning images from this year’s awards will open on Thursday October 20 at MoTIV in Kampala and will be open to visitors until November 20.
The show will include works from last year’s winner of the Young Photographer Award Timothy Akolamazima and runner-up Martina Nalunkuma.
Originally developed in 2012, Uganda Press Photo Award (UPPA) is the longest-running photography competition in Uganda. It began as a competition for Ugandan photographers who strive to keep the public informed of the daily news, sometimes at great risk to themselves.
