‘What The World Has Never Seen’ Photo Project comes to Kampala

Kampala, Uganda | Ronald Musoke| The Dutch photographic artist, Michel Szulc Krzyzanowski, alongside his producer Vanya Pieters are in Kampala to interest Ugandans participate in a global photo project dubbed ‘WHAT THE WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN.’

The project which so far has gone to the cities of Istanbul, New York, Bangkok, Jerusalem, and Moscow will go to one other city across five continents asking willing participants to showcase anything to the project what nobody has never seen before.

People with surprising answers are then supposed to be documented. The results will be published in an exclusive limited edition luxury photo book available to self-selecting people in the world in 2013.

Krzyzanowski was on Nov. 10 presenting his project to over 100 Art students inside the Art Gallery at the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Arts in Makerere University.

“We are in Kampala trying to see if we can find people who can show what no one else has ever seen,” he said.

“In photography, people always photograph what people see. But this is about secrets, things they don’t tell anybody else about,” before adding that the project is also about privacy and intimacy.

Although it was supposed to be a presentation of his current project which started in 2011, he ended up presenting other projects he has worked on over the last four decades.

Born in The Netherlands in 1949 to Polish parents, Krzyzanowski said he will always be grateful to his father who was so instrumental in identifying and nurturing his talent in photography at an early age.

He explained to the students that he chose to become an Autonomous Photographer as opposed to an Applied Photographer (photographers who always do what they are asked) so he could explore more of his talent without any prohibition. From the age of six he has been taking pictures and after graduating from Art School in The Netherlands, he chose autonomous photography because he likes doing what he wants—a passion which has enabled him travel all over the world.

Krzyzanowski who has dealt with various genres of his trade including sequences, vista series, the PS (photo shop) series and many other photo projects advised students to use photography in different ways to explore their talents.

“I only work basing on my own ideas, initiative and creativity. When you are an autonomous photographer, you have to run your own work like a business man,” he said.

“To turn into a successful autonomous photographer, one must give up everything in life including the little comforts of life; your photography must be of high quality, original, provoking and intriguing and then do vigorous marketing by creating a range of networks.”