Last year I was asked to accompany two other people from my church to Uganda, to meet with a man named George Byabagambi who oversees a large number of churches, an orphanage, and various other ministries. My job was photographic, to communicate the need and opportunity our community at home might have to partner with him in his work.
We spent a lot of time in small villages, meeting and talking with people, and spending time in their churches and communities. At one point we were forced to head inside because of a violent storm that rolled through. About a hundred people crammed into a tin-roofed church, and we could hear next to nothing because of the sound of rain on the roof.
I love this image because it shows how people can be in poverty and yet give so much at the same time. In this picture, adding to the cacophony were the voices of everyone in the building crying out at the same time in prayer for some of our friends in the U.S. who were suffering from cancer.
I was crammed into a small corner of the building with a wide-angle lens, trying to capture some sense of what was happening in the room. One of my favorite details is the oversized suit the man in the center is wearing, as so much of their clothing is donated from the West, but of course when choosing suits in Uganda, a tailor is rarely available.
The second two images were taken just a bit earlier, before the storm forced us inside.
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Ryan Estes is a Philadelphia portrait photographer.
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