Skip to main content
Back to Vignettes
Vignettes June 18, 2021June 24th, 2021

Ugandan Delights

Our good friend Willian Cooper-Mitchell recently sent over these Ugandan delights he shot back in 2017, whilst on a road trip driving from Kenya through Uganda & Rwanda to the Congo.

But first, some context! How did WT and William come to meet? Well, welcome to a lesson in chance encounters…

Not too many moons ago, pre-covid, one happened to be in Sri Lanka, somewhat against my will but the things we do!

The waves are soft. The crowds are beyond comprehension. However the locals are charming, the sun shines and the food is delicious. A life of compromise!

Whilst shooting a companion in the water (a rare experience for me, and not one I intend to repeat), I stepped on not just an urchin, but a veritable city of urchins. The waves were awful, the crowds savage. I was in a word, furious. As I hobbled out of the sea, muttering bloody murder under my breath, looking for tweezers and as much hard alcohol as I could eat, a voice said “You alright mate?” in the Queen’s English.

Now the English abroad are a curious bunch. We either hate each other with mutual disdain or instantly gel as bosom buddies. Luckily this was the latter. As I met Will for the first time, picking urchin spines out of each other’s feet, we shared a few warm beers and I learnt of his photography. Fast forward a couple of years, Will has become a good friend of WT, his photography even gracing the cover of Vol VIII. A good bloke indeed. – Alexei Obolensky 

.

14_IMG_2309
14_IMG_1921
IMG_1533
IMG_1570
IMG_1499
L_IMG_1010
IMG_1370
L_IMG_0945
L_IMG_1048
L_IMG_1067
L_IMG_1037
L_IMG_1198
L_IMG_1204
L_IMG_1042
L_IMG_1254
L_IMG_1260
L_IMG_1363
L_IMG_2151
L_IMG_1960
L_IMG_2089
L_IMG_2243
L_IMG_1764
L_IMG_1972
L_IMG_1562
L_IMG_2357
L_IMG_2451
L_IMG_2438
L_IMG_2409
L_IMG_2509

.

Stepping on a sea urchin really does ruin your day. It even does wonders for ruining your sunset surf mood. So as I sat there furious with myself as I knew the entry point to avoid an early spikey retirement I ordered some warm beer and a needle from the barman and sat down to operate. 

While my friend started to poke around my toes with a needle we had sanitised in a gin and tonic I watched a photographer and his longboard muse stroll confidently across the beach helping to take my mind off the procedure conducted by a cigarette smoking and increasingly tipsy surgeon. I watched them with not a small amount of envy only to look up again and see the photographer hobbling back out the water, sitting down on the sand and examining his feet. Oh how it improves ones own situation to see another befallen of the same fate, especially if they are British. 

Im not sure if it was the warm Lion beer taking effect or my enjoyment of watching the poor man limp up the beach looking for the same answers as me an hour earlier but I called out “urchins?” and offered assistance – a used needle and some even warmer beer. 

“Perfect” Came the reply. “I’m Alex”. And we ordered another round. Of beer and needles. And I began to pick black chards of urchin from a strangers foot. A fine chance encounter indeed as Alex turned out to be a perfect fellow patient and friend and none other than the founder of the esteemed Wasted Talent outfit based out of Biarritz. – William Cooper-Mitchell

14_IMG_2431
L_IMG_1942
1516310601
L_IMG_1319
IMG_1321
L_IMG_1362
L_IMG_1963
L_IMG_2241
L_IMG_1807

©Wasted Talent Magazine
Contact us