Ugandan Photojournalist Miriam Watsemba Shares a Little of Her Story

Any photographer can tell you that Uganda, as well as the rest of Africa, has a wealth of stories to be told through pictures and video. One such storyteller is photojournalist Miriam Watsemba, whose work has been featured in National Geographic, African Wildlife and more. Here she shares some of her stories with Cameras For Girls.

Miriam Watsemba is a Documentary Photographer based in Kampala, with a background in Journalism and Communications from Makerere University in Uganda. Her passion lies in storytelling and she believes that stories are an effective avenue for driving change and development.

The goal of this series is to show the girls in the Cameras For Girls program that the sky is the limit, and they can reach those goals with hard work and mostly belief in themselves. While it is true that in Uganda the journalism sector is male-dominated, Miriam is very proud to stand up and show the world that they should take notice of her and her work.

Miriam’s journey in documentary photography commenced in 2017 when she encountered UPPA (Uganda Press Photo Award)through one of their workshops organized in partnership with Canon. She has since then participated in several awards, mentorship opportunities, and professional training in documentary storytelling.

Watsemba’s work focuses on telling stories of vulnerable and unheard groups, amplifying the voices of refugees in Northern Uganda. Several of her documentary photography projects have been exhibited by Entree, Moleskine Foundation, and Uganda Press Photo Award both in Uganda and overseas.

Miriam shared some stories about how she gained access to her subjects and their stories and it has nothing to do with the camera. I was very impressed with Miriam’s passion that was evident in our interview and her photographs.

I am sure you will be impressed with Miriam after learning about her story.

Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnj53AnV6Sw&t=1s