Carmina can't be neatly categorized as an artist, to be honest. I began the interview by asking, "Who is Carmina?" Her response? "It is I." The tone was set!
As a well-rounded creative, she found it limiting to focus on just one facet of her creativity. However, this realization didn't happen overnight, and becoming comfortable with it took time. As artists, imposter syndrome haunts you day and night until you've matured enough to push back. The journey isn’t linear even if you’ve found your medium.
For as long as she can remember, Carmina has always followed the path of constant artistic discovery. While in high school, she not only took the art curriculum once but twice!
My first introduction to Carmina as an artist was through her photography. Later on, I discovered her talents extended to playing the guitar, selling arts and crafts, fashion, and even managing an emerging musician. Once back in Kigali, armed with a camera, she began capturing her friends, family and the world around her. Unfortunately, she lost her camera on a plane, but her grandma gifted her a film camera, allowing her to keep her dream as a creative creator alive. Her journey through photography led her to the African Leadership University, where, after a year in the media club, she started securing various paid gigs. Along the way, Carmina eventually circled back to why she had initially started photography. She began this artistic journey for herself, reveling in the freedom to choose the stories she wanted to follow and capture.
Defining the type of photography to pursue and the audience to cater to can be a challenging learning curve.
Our conversation also drifted into her tattoos and the meanings they held for her. In her case, they represented moments frozen in time, simply.
When I sat down with Carmina for the Table Series, she was managing an artist and preparing to move to Zanzibar to realize that dream. Additionally, she was also working on a book about Rwandan medicinal plants, an idea we had discussed a couple of years back.
You might be wondering how one can explore all these avenues, but trust me, it's absolutely fine to do so. There's no playbook or rule to this artistic journey. As someone who didn't identify as an artist until about six years into the journey, it was truly refreshing to hear someone embracing the different facets of their artistic mind and having a blast doing so.
Ladies and gentlemen, Carmina!
