Every year on 19th August, the art form of photography is celebrated. Today, our photographers share images that celebrate New Rwanda.
Monument of Fight against Corruption in Rwanda’s capital Kigali
Launch of zipline’s drone which serves Rwanda in blood delivery
Farming in the outskirts of Kigali where the market is a guarantee. Photo by Ruzi
The great Norwegian writer, and theatre director, Henrik Ibsen, observed that “a thousand words leave not the same deep impression, as does a single deed.”
A French song goes like” football c’est pas la guerre’. Former APR central defender Herve Rugwiro removes that small insect that was embarrassing the referee, March 2018, Gicumbi stadium. Photo by Sam Imanishimwe
Ironically, those words did leave quite an impression, giving birth to the now common expression that “a picture is worth a thousand words.”
Rubavu-Western Province
There is in a way, a kinship between Ibsen and photography. Ibsen stands as one of the greatest playwrights of any generation, who left the world with great poet plays. At its most creative, photography has poetry within it, expressing much that our day-to-day words cannot.
Two means of transport at sunset. Photo Plaisir Muzogeye
The idea of a day to celebrate photography can be traced back to 1837. In 1830, Frenchman Louis Daguerre, with his colleague Joseph Nicephore Niepce, invented the first photographic process, the Daguerreotype. The French Academy of Science, hailed the invention, as “a gift to the world.”
The world has since taken it up gratefully, to advance the development of the process, possibly beyond even where the eventers might have imagined.
Rongi Model village-Muhanga district
What would Daguerre make of the fact that today, in our digital age, millions of us, with a mobile device, that also serves as a telephone, among other things, can take hundreds of pictures in a mere minute.
Poultry in Karama model village, Nyarugenge district
According to estimates by Keypoint Intelligence, which analyses data, 1.4trillon images were snapped in 2020. And that was less than a normal year, due to the slow down in human activity, due to the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic.
Volcano national park (Sabyinyo volcano here), home to the rare mountain gorillas- Photo Plaisir Muzogeye
We do not as yet have figures for Rwanda, but Rwandans have taken to photography, like a duck to water.
We lead with two particular images. One is of Rwanda’s head of state, Paul Kagame, creating his own, personal memories with a camera.
The flower by Germaine Umukazana
As commander of the RPA (Rwanda Patriotic Army), and then of course as head of state, he has been central to the creation of a Rwanda that today, every Rwandan celebrates. Happy International photography to him.
Sport: Mountain Gorilla rally 2019 photo by Germaine Umukazana
We also lead with the image of our much loved, and greatly missed friend and colleague, Prince Charles Kwizera, robbed from us at a painfully young age, by a congenital condition. With his sharp editorial skills and great knowledge of Rwanda, Prince would have revelled in leading our team find the most evocative images.
Sports: Competition, the best of its kind. APR handball club in a crash against ADEGi- Gituza in a past game. Check that little boy who is running for his safety
Rwanda’s Methane Gas on Lake Kivu
We hope that these images from our professional photographers will inspire your creativity to greater depths, to take time away from selfies, and contemplate that flower, the spectacular sunset, or for the early risers, the poetry of the dawn.
Louis Daguerre, photographer, Inventor of the Daguerreotype
Louis Daguerre’s Daguerreotype
Josepth Nicephore Niepce – Photographer and Inventor.
