THE DAY I SHOT JESUS by Seun Akisanmi

"10 MINUTES TO OUR FINAL DESTINATION." The Captain's voice made me a little  nervous. I had boarded the underground oceanic train that ran across the New Atlantic Ocean. The sight was unbelievable. Who would have thought that an underground train from New York to Israel via the ocean will be feasible. The year was 2137 and I had been commissioned to provide portraits of His Royal Majesty, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.

He had seen a portrait I did for prophet Jeremiah & Adam in the year 2136 and had been intrigued. He decided he was due for another session. The last time He had a photo shoot was in 2092 in Israel. I would be the 3rd human being (1st African) to give His Royal Majesty a session. How would I go about it. I wondered what specifically intrigued him about Jeremiah and Adam's pictures. What a honour indeed it would be to carve a portrait for the one that created my being. Almost as if he could hear my thoughts, he interrupted: PEACE. Suddenly I  had this overwhelming peace and confidence that this was indeed one of the reasons he had created me.....for such a session. It would be a session after which the world would see another side of Jesus that they had not seen. More importantly, this would be the first portrait that would be taken by a man and exhibited in the Lord's Temple in Heaven. What a privilege.

We passed Jerusalem Institute of Technology and I realized I had just 2 more minutes to the underground train's final destination. I took a last glance at the last portrait that Jesus took. Though blind & crippled in his pre-rapture life, Sou was able to get a portrait of Jesus laughing his heart out. You could see from the picture that the photographer had really said or done something that made the King of Earth burst out in laughter while simultaneously using his hands to cover his eyes. I looked at the scar on His hand. He didn't have to go to the Cross but I'm glad he did. The picture had gone viral and was still considered the most downloaded "real" picture of Jesus in Human history. Who would have thought Jesus could laugh like that.

I turned to my assistant, Folu, and asked if all was good to go. He replied in the affirmative. He confirmed that the makeup artist had arrived at the New Gate Hotel in Jerusalem. Considered the headquarters of the world, Jerusalem had blossomed (in all spheres) in the last few decades as a result of the physical presence of Jesus.

I took another glimpse of my camera before getting off the train. I had just purchased the new SILT K5 which came with a whopping 2.16 zettapixels image sensor. A picture taken with this baby will result in over 2 billion trillion pixels if I take time to count. That should be enough to document the session. I felt fulfilled knowing that the camera's first assignment would be to snap the creator of the universe. I smiled.

"Phone call for you sir," Folu interrupted. It was the makeup artist. She was wondering why we are yet to get to the hotel. "Don't worry Ofure, we'll be there in 6 minutes." I dropped the call and hurriedly boarded the.....

To be continued....

Authored by:
Seun Akisanmi
Poet | Photographer
Tweet @SeunAkisanmi