Leopold and Mobutu

Guy Tillim

Leopold and Mobutu


Guy Tillim spent July to September 2003 photographing traces of the colonial occupation of the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium and vestiges of more recent plunder under Mobutu Sese Seko. This series of images was exhibited at Michael Stevenson in May 2004, and in book form is accompanied by an essay by Adam Hochschild, the author of the highly acclaimed King Leopold's ghost. Tillim's images, frequently composed in diptychs and triptychs, juxtapose historical sites in the Congo and Belgium with contemporary views of the DRC. Hochschild writes: 'Rare is the photographer whose work so well captures not only the country before his camera's lens, but also the country of a hundred or more years ago.'

Published by Filigranes Éditions | 2004
Softcover, 112 pages | ISBN 2-914381-91-3 | Unavailable

Artist page