In Pictures: A personal odyssey through Kampala’s pumping nightlife
- Text by Alex King
- Photography by Michele Sibiloni
“Everything happens at night”, Michele Sibiloni explains.
After working as a freelancer based in Uganda’s capital Kampala, covering protests and uprisings during the Arab Spring and elsewhere, Italian born Michele was burnt out.
He needed a release, an opportunity to get behind the lens without the stress of unrest or press deadlines – so he embarked on a long-term documentary project. Michele’s photobook Fuck It, chronicles his exploration of Kabalagala, Kampala’s party district.
Uganda has a thriving night culture, with temporary nocturnal versions of everything from shops to banks. Kabalagala is where the saints mix with the sinners. As David Cecil explains in the book’s intro, the area plays host to, “street-walkers, good-time girls, vagabonds, village fools, rastas, pimps, drunken expats, drunken locals, drunken everybody, underpaid guards, overworked bouncers, old-timers, orphans, urchins, beggars, hoodlums, hustlers, grasshopper vendors, all kinds of cops, NGO workers and back-alley exorcists.”
The project became more than the creative break he initially anticipated, and over a couple of years he developed a fascinating body of work. “If you want to make a long-term project, you create the opportunity to make great pictures when you put in the work every day – when you’re very dedicated and committed to the daily routine of documenting something,” Michele explains.
Shooting instinctively (and on film), Michele lost himself in the hustle and bustle, the highs and the lows of Kabalagala – drinking and partying himself at times – where the night took him he would follow.
For Michele, it was important Fuck It showed another side to life in Kampala, challenging African stereotypes with an alternative perspective. “It was important to show a glimpse of the night adventures of the life that I was living in Kampala, documenting the night through my own experience,” he explains. “Before coming to Uganda, I didn’t know much about the place. You have a distorted perception about Africa in general, because the little we know comes from the news and the news is so often related to bad things happening. In a city like Kampala, there are musicians, artists, ex-pats, every type of character you can imagine. Just like anywhere else, people love to people go out and have fun.”
Michele Sibiloni’s Fuck It is out now, published by Edition Patrick Frey. Check out the book launch at The Photographers’ Gallery, London, March 10, 17.30-19.30.
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