The Gulu Project / YOUTH

A tale on the aftermath of civil war in Northern Uganda and some of its protagonists.

Youth have been both the primary victims and the primary actors in the two-decade-long war between the LRA ( Lord’s Resistance Army) and the Ugandan state in Northern Uganda, which ended in 2006.

My photos capture moments of the daily lives of young people. While drug abuse and violence are the extreme ends of a traumatized post-war generation, it is mainly the abundant boredom and idleness caused by massive unemployment and lack of economic opportunities, which affect young people. They are trapped in a void between dreams of a westernized and modern lifestyle they mainly experience through media and the violent past of their tribal and cultural identity. It is the war that has shaped this gap. 

But even in the longest period of recovery we also find moments of hope and beauty.

The project was funded by VG Bild-Kunst and exhibited in a solo show at Makerere Art Gallery in Kampala, Uganda in April 2014. Curation: Marc Prüst, Katrin Peters-Klaphake, Anna Kucma