Ebifananyi 8 – The King Pictured – Ekifananyi Kya Muteesa

Ekifananyi Kya Muteesa presents a collective visual research into the social and cultural biography of the first photographic portrait made of a king in Buganda. The photograph was made by explorer Henry Morton Stanley in 1875 and was barely known in Uganda when Andrea Stultiens started this research. Interpretations of this picture are known and in use in the country.

Stultiens traced the relation between the photograph and the interpretations and invited Ugandan artists to make their own version of ‘a picture of Muteesa’. Among them are Canon Griffin, Daudi Karungi, Eria Nsubuga, Eva Ddembe, Fred Mutebi, Fred Ndaula, Henry Mzili Mujunga, Ian Mwesiga, Jacob Odama, Margaret Nagawa, Martha Namutosi, Matt Kayem, Mukiza, Nathan Omiel, Papa Shabani, Piloya Irene, Ronex Ahimbisbwe, Sanaa Gateja, Timothy Erau, Violet Nantume and Wasswa Donald. Each one of these interpretations contributes to a contemporary understanding of the photograph and brings forth an alternative for the engraving that is based on the photograph. This engraving was published in a book by H.M. Stanley. Stultiens considers to be a misinterpretation of the photograph and explains why in this book.
source: www.paradox.nl