HeadStrong - The Women of Rural Uganda by Dan Nelken

HeadStrong intends to present 360-degree humanizing portraits of a cross-section of working women in rural Uganda with words and images. This project aims to bring to light the conditions under which women living in rural Uganda find themselves suspended between the old world, gender-defined responsibilities, rapid population growth and financial obstacles to education for girls. Knowing that each woman had a compelling story to tell, aware of my outsider status, I partnered with Beatrice Lamwaka, an award-winning Ugandan author. Lamwaka interviewed each portrait subject in her local dialect and then wrote a narrative to accompany their image striving to maintain their vernacular cadence and expressions without modifying them for Western audiences.