Lemvo Jean Abou Bakar Depara, known as Depara (1928–1997), was an Angolan-born photographer who worked in the

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. Depara purchased his first

video camera A video camera is an optical instrument that captures videos (as opposed to a movie camera, which records images on film). Video cameras were initially developed for the television industry but have since become widely used for a variety of other ...

to record his wedding in 1950; four years later, he was made official photographer to the Zairian singer

Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ref ...

. In 1975 he became official photographer to the National Assembly of Democratic Republic of Congo. He also took many photographs of the social scene of

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

during the period. At his death in 1997 he left a large archive of untitled negatives; many of these have been reprinted and titled for sale since his death. Some of Depara's work is in the collection of

Jean Pigozzi Jean "Johnny" Pigozzi (born 1952), heir to the CEO of the automobile brand Simca, is an art collector, photographer, fashion designer and . He lives in Geneva. Biography Pigozzi is a "French-born Italian". He was born in Paris in 1952 and is ...

References

Bio from the National Museum of African Art
1928 births 1997 deaths People from Portuguese Angola Democratic Republic of the Congo photographers Angolan emigrants to the Democratic Republic of the Congo 20th-century photographers 20th-century male artists {{DRCongo-bio-stub