Africa Is a Country

Photography. Jean Depara

Photography. Jean Depara

By
Tom Devriendt

In Paris the Maison Revue Noire gallery presents a retrospective on the work of photographer Jean Depara. Born in Angola in 1928, Depara moved to Congo at a young age. After living and shooting in Léopoldville/Kinshasa for some years, his work was noted by music star Franco who asked him to become his official photographer. The resulting black and white pictures chronicling the city’s night life in the fifties and sixties, the young Bills, the miziki and the sapeurs are, until this day, unmatched. Depara died in 1997, leaving his archive of hundreds of negatives untitled.

The exhibition runs until 17 December.

Further Reading

No one should be surprised we exist

The documentary film, ‘Rolé—Histórias dos Rolezinhos’ by Afro-Brazilian filmmaker Vladimir Seixas uses sharp commentary to expose social, political, and cultural inequalities within Brazilian society.

Kenya’s stalemate

A fundamental contest between two orders is taking place in Kenya. Will its progressives seize the moment to catalyze a vision for social, economic, and political change?

More than a building

The film ‘No Place But Here’ uses VR or 360 media to immerse a viewer inside a housing occupation in Cape Town. In the process, it wants to challenge gentrification and the capitalist logic of home ownership.