Inside AFP
Opening of "Quoi de neuf à l'Est" photo exhibition in Kinshasa
On April 20, 2023 the exhibition "Quoi de neuf à l'Est" ("What's new in the East") was launched at cultural centre CWB in Kinshasa. The exhibition shows the work of Alexis Huguet, AFP photojournalist based in Kinshasa, which focuses on the wave of violence in eastern DRC from 2018 to 2023.
Check out a selection of the exhibited pictures and Alexis' words below:
"Some people were upset looking at my photos of the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in an exhibition held over a thousand miles away in the capital Kinshasa.
That was the point: to force people to look the victims of the conflict in the eyes.
I organised the event together with the Belgian embassy, inviting Congolese politicians, foreign diplomats, United Nations officials, activists, researchers and journalists. The aim wasn't to moralise or urge solutions, but to show as clearly as possible the horrific reality conflict inflicts on millions of people in eastern DRC, in the capital that usually prefers to look away.
The idea for exhibition wasn't my own. It came one evening from Belgian diplomat Tristan Terryn, an expert on conflicts in the DRC, who had become a firm friend over many long discussions over the situation in the east. I had never exhibited my photos before, and selecting just 60 out of many thousands of pictures taken over the years seemed to me an impossible task. But eventually we winnowed it down.
Over the next few months, the exhibition will tour several Congolese cities. I hope to follow it across the country and to continue to share the stories of people who let me capture theirs."
