Joseph Makula (1929–2006) was a Congolese photographer. He initially served as a military photographer for the

Force Publique The ''Force Publique'' (, "Public Force"; nl, Openbare Weermacht) was a gendarmerie and military force in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1885 (when the territory was known as the Congo Free State), through the period of ...

before being hired as the first Congolese photographer for Congopresse in 1956. After Congopresse closed in 1968, he worked as a freelancer and established his own studio. He died in 2006.

Biography

Joseph Makula was born in 1929 in

Orientale Province Orientale Province ( French: ''Province orientale'', "Eastern province") is one of the former provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its predecessors the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo. It went through a series of boundary ...

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

. He attended a nursing school in Stanleyville, but enlisted in the

in Port-Francqui in 1948. The following year he was stationed in

Léopoldville 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 of ...

, and the editor of the army's newspaper, ''Sango Ya Biso'', tapped him as a photographer for the publication. He was later made a supervisor of a military photographic lab tasked with developing film. He left the army in 1956 and briefly found work at a newspaper, ''Pourquoi pas l'Avenir''. Later in 1956 or 1957 Makula was hired by Congopresse, the Belgian Congo's official press agency, as its first Congolese photographer. He mainly photographed '' évolués'', educated Congolese who formed an elite social group in the colony. He worked mostly in and around the capital,

, taking few photographs in the outlying provinces and never taking pictures of villages. Unlike his European colleagues, Makula took few photographs of official ceremonies or visiting foreign dignitaries. Following Congolese independence in 1960, Congopresse's European staff departed, and Makula went to Belgium for a training course in photography. When he returned to the Congo, he trained a new group of Congolese photographers for the agency, including its only woman photographer, Mpate Sulia. In 1968, Congopresse closed down and Mukula became a freelance photographer. He set up his own photo studio, Photo Mak, in

Lemba Lemba may refer to: * ''Lemba'' (grasshopper), a genus of insect in the subfamily Caryandinae * Lemba people, an African ethnic group in Southern Africa ;Places * Lemba, Kinshasa, a commune in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo * Lembá ...

, Kinshasa, in 1981. It operated until 1991. He died in 2006.

References

Sources

* * *

External links

A photograph by Makula
from the

National Museum of African Art The National Museum of African Art is the Smithsonian Institution's African art museum, located on the National Mall of the United States capital. Its collections include 9,000 works of traditional and contemporary African art from both Sub-S ...

. 1929 births 2006 deaths Democratic Republic of the Congo photographers Soldiers of the Force Publique {{DRCongo-bio-stub