Donatella Uwimbabazi recalls walking into a photo studio with friends for a photoshoot, only to receive poor quality black and white images. The photos didn’t bring out the beauty of the dresses they wore, the colour of their skin or hair. That was 40 years ago. 

Uwimbabazi says that back then, when they would get visitors, they would serve them a local drink made from ripe banana and after brief conversation on how both sides were doing, the next thing would be to give the visitor a photo album to look through for no particular reason. 

"Albums were the only way to keep memories in the form of photos, and we always carefully kept a negative too (an image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film).”

Photos can be used for activism and advertising.  Photos/Net

She says they always invited a cameraman to capture special moments every time they held a function at home.

Getting creative

Photos not only connect us to our past, they remind us of people, places and occasions. Photography as we know it has come a long way. It is said that it began in the late 1830s in France. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French inventor, usually credited as the inventor of photography and a pioneer in that field, used a portable camera obscura to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light. This is the first recorded image that did not fade quickly. 

With development in technology, photography soon became a source of information and communication. On one hand, it was used as a form of creative self-expression— something that still happens today—but it also quickly became a tool that documented all of life, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Today, images not only give us good memories, they also sell and have become a source of income to many people today.

Louis Sekamana, a model, says he earns from his photogenic nature which brings him advertising work. "Apart from being a model, I work with creatives and photo studios and post pictures on Instagram and Twitter,” Sekamana says

Many companies, he says, ask him to advertise for them. "I have advertised for Skol Malt Rwanda, RwandAir and Visit Rwanda initiative, among others,” Sekamana says. 

Linda Amanda, a social media enthusiast and influencer, appreciates creative photographers who share better angles of photos. 

"I live by my photos which I post on Instagram. I have agencies asking me to advertise for them and promote their products, through my handles,” she says.

Amanda says she always tries to find beauty in everything around her and asks her personal photographer to capture the moments. Creativity, she says, is what sells her photos.

With the coming of smartphones, phones with high quality images sell more than any other kind. They are on a level of competing with high quality cameras, something Amanda finds great because she can even find a good tripod and take photos herself and edit later for better images.

Hamza Kalisa, a photojournalist in Kigali, says, "With social media, many have put to good use their images, from creating a handle, to posting catchy images, to being social media influencers, to great promoters,” he says

He says that creative photos are very important because everyone can benefit from them.