“Congo in Conversation” by Finbarr O'Reilly, winner of the Carmignac Prize

Text by: Siegfried Forster

After the Ebola epidemic and the worst measles outbreak in the world, the DRC is hit by the coronavirus pandemic. With Congo in Conversation, Finbarr 0'Reilly, exceptional photographer and expert from Africa, has invented a collaborative report with Congolese journalists on site, posted online on Tuesday April 28, from 6 p.m. Interview.

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When confinement leads to a new kind of photojournalism: an online collaborative report, orchestrated by an exceptional photographer with several World Press Awards, the Canadian-British Finbarr O'Reilly. After having lived twelve years in West and Central Africa, covered for 25 years with conflicts and wars all over the world, he launched, as part of the Carmignac Prize, the Congo in Conversation platform to make visible the resilience of many of Congolese.

RFI : Where are you today and how do you live with confinement ?

Finbarr O'Reilly : I'm in my house in London. Like everyone else, I try to stay at home, but I continue to work on the Congo in Conversation project with the Carmignac Prize team. At the same time, I'm working on a few photo reports for the New York Times .

Congo in Conversation , how is this a new way of working for you ?

The idea of ​​the Carmignac Prize is to finance the reportage of a photographer for six months. I was fortunate to be the winner this year for a subject concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Normally, it was planned that I would do my reportage for six months to produce a book and an exhibition in Paris, originally scheduled for December.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, I could not travel, the borders are closed. So, we decided to reconfigure the project, to work with certain local Congolese journalists, in several cities of the country, to find out how the country is evolving during the pandemic.

So is it more of an evolving photographic dialogue than a finished work to exhibit ?

This is exactly it. We always intend to carry out the project proposed at the beginning, with the intention of going to the Congo and doing my report there and making a book of it. But while waiting for me to go there, we decided to do this project which is evolving and in dialogue with Congolese journalists who can show us the situation there when I can't get there.

You sign the work. It's your signature above the winning work, but, in fact, you find yourself rather in the role of a conductor or a filmmaker who signs a film with the help of many people. making texts, photos, videos ...

I rather occupy the role of a curator, that is to say that I am in contact with my Congolese brothers and sisters to discuss with them what is happening in their life and in their city, for good understand the situation there. How is the response being made, not only on the coronavirus, but also on other subjects such as the Ebola epidemic or the epidemic of measles, the most serious in the world. In the past 12 months, more than 6,000 people have died from measles, mostly children. And now there is the coronavirus pandemic. So we wanted to add Congolese voices to the overall discourse on this subject. For this, we have created a platform, a site and accounts on social networks.

Can we say that this collaborative online report is more intended for phone screens and social networks like Instagram than the picture rails of a museum or gallery ?

This part of the project is not intended to be in a book or exhibit. For the moment, Congo in Conversation is planned for the Carmignac Prize site, but also for social networks, such as Instagram, Facebook or YouTube. Currently everyone is stuck at home, so it's an opportunity to share these stories.

A photo, taken in February of this year, shows a scene in the city of Rutshuru, in North Kivu. Neighbors and Red Cross workers in protective gear gather outside the house of an eleven-month-old girl who died in the Ebola epidemic. How did you describe this photo ?

I started in January my report on the spot. At that time, there was an ongoing Ebola epidemic, but the coronavirus pandemic was not yet predictable. There were a hundred villagers around the house. There are traditions for burials. Family and community members should have the right to see the child's body. So the people of the Red Cross dressed in their masks, gloves and boots and their white protective clothing. They also dressed a family member so that he could enter the house with them to inspect everything. Because, in the population, there is a lot of suspicion that the people of the response do strange things with the corpses. So it is to reassure the family that there are no lies told. For this, there is a family member who monitors everything, the disinfection operation and the burial of the body.

You have lived in Congo and Rwanda. You have been working for 25 years in Africa. What struck you most about the way the Congolese face the Covid-19 today ?

The Congo is not only facing the Covid-19. This country has a long history. There is a colonial shadow over this country which suffered a lot under the reign of the Belgians, but also under the dictatorship of Mobutu (1965-1997) and several wars. But, despite all the difficulties that the Congolese have experienced, there is still a spirit of resilience that always amazes me and that inspires me too. Through my project, I really wanted to show this aspect of Congolese life: how people continue to live and survive, despite all the problems that exist.

Today, many factors prevent photojournalists from circulating freely : terrorism, climate change, fundamentalism, dictatorships, wars, epidemics, the Covid-19 pandemic ... This approach to collaborative reporting developed for Congo in Conversation, does this open up new horizons for photojournalism ? This work in networks, is it the manual for the future of photojournalism ?

Photojournalism is truly an industry in crisis with the funding difficulties of magazines and newspapers which make almost everyone work as a freelancer. There is a tradition of the "foreigner" who travels to all corners of the world to impose his impressions of foreign countries. I think it is also very important - especially with Africa, which is always represented in a certain way, often negative - to listen to the perspectives of African journalists, and in our case, Congolese journalists. It is really the Congolese who lead. It gives a more complete perspective offering something different than if it was me, the stranger, who arrives with my ideas. It is very important to see how the Congolese see their life and how they wish to tell their stories. This is what we are encouraging with this project.

►  To discover Congo in Conversation , project by Finbarr O'Reilly, winner of the Carmignac 2020 prize: www.fondationcarmignac.com

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