Congo On the Wire exhibition, Bayeux, France
When I first started reporting from Africa eight years ago, it was almost impossible to generate any interest in the Western media for a story about Congo. This was immediately following the 9/11 attacks on the United States and the world was still reeling in the aftermath.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have since dominated our news coverage and resources during the first decade of the millennium.
Even as Democratic Republic of Congo’s war-related death toll rose above a staggering five million, making it the most lethal conflict since World War Two, the war in Central Africa remained largely unnoticed and under-reported.
But lately there has been a slight shift. In October 2008, a fresh upsurge of violence drove some 250,000 people from villages in the country’s eastern Kivu provinces, bringing to more than one million the number of internally displaced Congolese.
Congo’s war victims usually perish far from sight, deep in the bush, the latest ghosts in that country’s turbulent history. But last October, the war was accessible. Foreign journalists descended en masse into Goma, a town bordering Rwanda, and booked into hotels with picturesque views of smouldering volcanoes overlooking Lake Kivu.
The media could enjoy coffee and croissants for breakfast, drive up to the front line fighting or the squalid camps home to hundreds of thousands of displaced Congolese, then return to file stories and pictures in time for dinner and a night at the bar.
Finbarr from the field
On Jan. 14 Reuters hosted a live video Q&A with our renowned photographer Finbarr O’Reilly about his experiences in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Finbarr addressed what drew him to Africa and the most difficult aspects of being a photographer in a war zone.
Finbarr is still available to answer questions, submit them in the comments section below or send a Twitter message with the hash tag “#finbarr” .
Check out “Death all around,” his multimedia report from a Congolese refugee camp, dispatches from Chad and Afghanistan, selected photos from his portfolio, and an audio slideshow from his most recent Congo assignment.
Finbarr,I’m a photographer with the U.S. Army, and have built up a fairly good portfolio over the course of my work in Iraq and stateside. I would like to continue working as a photojournalist using my experience in conflict zones, but outside the military, but am not sure where to start. What would your recommendation be for a starting point in a photojournalistic career of this kind?
-
Resident Photographers Blog Expert
-
The Wall
Thanks for the article. Photographers are often the first “eyes of the world” that are watching. It’s tragic when the photos remain silent and just can’t compete with the rest of the noise in the world. It’s hard to fathom 5 Million deaths in the bloodiest conflict since WWII, just passing under the radar.
I wish I could see the exhibit. I hope it goes on tour. I like what you’ve written about using the shallow depth of field to pull the subjects out of the environment/context, to focus on the fact that they are human with a narrative that we can probably relate to somehow. THey are not just more black faces in a news story about strife in Africa.
I had the good fortune to travel to West Africa, to The Gambia, this past March, to shoot a short educational documentary that aimed to show the resilience and savvy of the people there. Had the same experience where meeting the people one on one made us feel so surely that this is not a lost continent.