Photo Museum

Congo (belge)

Carl De Keyzer, a Belgian topphotographer and member of the renowned agency Magnum, created a number of photographs that provide a penetrating picture of the vestiges of Belgium in modern Congo. He followed the route of tourist attractions from the colonial period as described in an old travel guide. The result is a unique series of photographs with historical significance, which is confrontational because it evokes questions about the way in which Belgium fleshed out colonisation from the architectural and urban viewpoint, as well as about the causes of the present state of chaos and decay.

On the occasion of this exhibition a photo book with the same title will be published by Lannoo.

Congo belge en images - Unseen archive photographs of Belgian Congo

Congo belge en images’ starts from the wealth of visual material on Congo’s colonial past. From the immense archive of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Carl De Keyzer and Johan Lagae selected 100 photographs of Belgian Congo which have never been published before. The concept was not so much a historical overview of photography in Belgian Congo, but rather a presentation of ‘talking images’ that are the fall-out of a ‘voyage of discovery’ throughout the collections of the Royal Museum in Tervuren.

On the occasion of this exhibition a photo book will be published by Lannoo.

In cooperation with the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren.