Biography
Baudouin Mouanda (Congolese photographer)
Baudouin Mouanda, a Congolese photographer, was born and now works in Brazzaville. He is a member of the Génération Elili collective and Afrique in visu.
He started out in photography in 1993, when he borrowed his father's Zenith camera in his absence, which finally became his own after winning a bet. He very soon turned his back on conformism and classic photography, such as family photos and souvenir snaps, to focus on the history of his country and the aftermath of the repeated wars that have cast such a tragic shadow over Congo.
Baudouin Mouanda has won numerous prizes at photographic events throughout the world and exhibits in many countries.
He refers to himself as a "photographer of life" and continues to produce series full of realism and poetry, challenging everything with his investigative gaze. In the series “Hip Hop et Société”, “Le Trottoir du Savoir” and “Congolese Dreams” he proposes a highly personal vision of the marriage between hope and disenchantment. He is currently working on “Les Fantômes des corniches”, a series pleading the case for a revivified continent that is struggling to hold onto its youth. His photographs have been included in several collections in France and abroad. He is one of the most promising young photographers on the African continent.