Six Rwandan photographers are showcasing their best photos at the ongoing World Press Photo exhibition, alongside award-winning photographs taken by world-class professional photographers from across the globe. Organised by the Netherlands Embassy and European Union and backed by the City of Kigali, the international exhibition started on June 10 at the freshly-renovated car-free zone in the Central Business District and will run through three weeks’ time. The annual exhibition travels to more than 120 cities in 50 countries, reaching millions of people to not only showcase award-winning photos at the international scene but also educate the audience in visual literacy and encourage debate and research on the important issues facing visual journalism. Through a photo contest and digital storytelling contest that recognises the best in visual journalism and digital storytelling, an independent jury chooses the awarded images and productions for the exhibition, based on their accurate, fair, and visually compelling insights about the world. That means that only award-winning photographs were accepted for the exhibition when it came to Kigali. However, the City of Kigali, through its existing partnership with the Netherlands Embassy and European Union, recommended local photographers to feature in the exhibition and use it as a learning experience opportunity in their daily photography careers. Below are the six Rwandan photographers featuring on World Press Photo exhibition happening in Kigali: Cyril Ndengeya Regarded as one of Rwanda’s experienced photojournalists, Ndegeya’s photography fields of specialization are in news, aviation, travel and wildlife. As a photojournalist, his approach consists in identifying the complexity of a matter and then deciding which angle is the most relevant to work on. His personal projects are mainly connected to travel, urbanism, cultural activities and tourism matters. From 2012 to date, Ndegeya’s photographs featured in international news agencies and media house like AFP, Jeune Afrique, Xinhua Net, anadolu Agency, The New York Times and The Guardian among others. Alice Kayibanda Kayibanda is a Kigali-based female photographer who took up photography after spending years working in office. She has penchant for capturing people in their environment and telling their stories to various audiences through compelling visual storytelling. Today, she uses photography to express her life experience that other people can relate to. Kayibanda works on different projects in Rwanda and abroad, with clients ranging from NGOs to government organisations and small businesses and individuals. At the exhibition, she showcases photographs that are part of her ‘journey to home’ project that depicts the journey of a woman who struggles with people’s opinions of her own natural hair. She then embarks on a journey of self-discovery and finds freedom of self-acceptance. Jacques Nkinzinabo Born and raised in Kigali, Nkinzingabo is a DJ, Music Producer and self-taught photographer. He is the founder of the Kigali Centre for Photography, the lone photography centre in town, which is an artist-led festival, founded by photographers and for photographers and a platform to share work and ideas helping to build supportive and inclusive communities of practice. Nkinzingabo’s works have been exhibited in various parts of the globe, with the last currently showing in Museo Colonial in Bogota, Colombia. His photographs have been published in CNN Africa, The New York Times, The European Times, NPR, Stanford University Magazine, UNICEF, Tony Blair Foundation and so forth. The photographs showing at the World Press Photo exhibition are part of his ‘Country in Progress’ project which examines how photographs document and represent Time and Space. The project seeks to unpack the factors that invent new identities and ways of seeing within and the way people think about Rwanda. With these portraits and landscape photographs, Nkinzingabo wants to include stories and narratives to share both within Rwanda and internationally to communicate Rwanda’s beauty, resilience, nuance, from history to date. Plaisir Muzogeye Muzogeye has close to ten-year experience in photojournalism. Apart from working on various national and international events, including the just concluded Basketball Africa League (BAL), Muzogeye has worked and continues to work on several visual projects. Muzogeye sees Rwanda as a soft spot from reference of the history of the country and its people. “That’s why many of my photographs are about Rwandan nature, infrastructure and its people,” he says. Tracy Keza Born in Kenya, raised in South Africa and now based in Kigali, Rwanda, Keza works both as a photographer and a filmmaker with her work ranging from fine art and documentary photography. Through her works, she explores notions of identity, culture and conservation. The photos which are on display at the exhibition are part of her photo project which is a visual documentation of a local girls’ boxing club. It’s an ongoing project which follows six young women from Inkuba Boxing Club as they hone their craft, with hope to one day get an opportunity to participate in a boxing tournament and represent their country or ideally defend themselves and their families. The project aims at learning more about their journey which caught Keza’s interest as someone who recently took up boxing, and started wondering the place girls have in boxing. Gadi Habumugisha A documentary photographer who regularly creates images of people living in a quickly developing world, Habumugisha’s work allows him to constantly explore new places and image-making techniques, inviting the viewer to see the diversity of people’s lives. His works were exhibited at the United Nations in New York City to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Habumugisha actively participates in Rwanda’s photographic community where he teaches photography to vulnerable children around the world. He is also a photographer for The Photo project, an organisation that travels to remote areas to take portraits of people who have never had photos of themselves taken.
