Léonard Pongo

Léonard Pongo was born in Liège, Belgium in 1988. His mother is Belgian and his father is Congolese. He grew up in Belgium and studied in the Netherlands. He graduated in Political and Social Sciences from the University of Maastricht. He dedicated himself to photography and developed his style during a stay in Eastern Europe. Due to his father's silence regarding the past in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and growing up without knowing the country, he became interested in Congolese culture and made his first trip in 2011, which shaped his art. In the series The Uncanny (2011), Necessary Evil (2015) and Primordial Earth (2019), Pongo looks beyond the direct effects of the war in D.R.C by highlighting the ways of life and behaviour of individuals, religion and traditions in the country.