More Deadly than Gunpowder is a documentary photography project that examines the sharp rise of type 2 diabetes in Senegal, West Africa, and the multiple factors fueling this increase. Photographic inquiry proves a dynamic method to bring needed attention to the lived experience of diabetic patients, their families, and the host of practitioners and advocates confronting this looming public health crisis. No longer the exclusive worry of rich nations, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are now rising dramatically across the developing world and pose significant challenges to health systems and societies ill-equipped to manage them. It is one thing to negotiate having diabetes in a high income country, but quite another matter for patients, their families and their health care providers to manage within a low resource nation. This inquiry catalogs a rich weave of images and narratives to tell this story at this critical epidemiological juncture. Harnessing photography’s distinct capacity to communicate across diverse audiences with intimacy and perspective, this project aims to chronicle a disease, those it afflicts and its interventions in order to find utility and impact as a valuable tool for patient education, care and advocacy. Standing at the juncture of global health, medicine, nutrition, development, social justice, documentary, journalism and socially engaged art practices, this endeavor involves inter-disciplinary collaboration in and across diverse disciplines.