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Artefacts
The metal staircase to our oldest basement in the South of France corkscrews down into rubble. The room collapsed at some disputed time for some disputed reason. But before it collapsed, it was the...
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Xmas 1919 in Panda Likasi
Whomever has been expat or away from home during the Christmas period, knows that very mixed feeling of longing for home, family and hearth, but also at the same time a bit relieved that you will not...
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Cars, to Infinity and Beyond!
1919 – Chisangwe, Lubumbashi, Congo – The Chevrolet Touring I have now been shuffling through teetering piles of photos for weeks. Discovering, observing, guessing, filing, moving on to the next...
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From Ghent to Likasi, the Heart of Darkness
1899. You are writing a novel about travelling back to the origins, of man, of mankind. You want to express physical, cultural and psychological challenge. It has to be a journey into the deepest, the...
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Barefoot
1919 – Katanga, Congo In most of the pictures taken in or around the bush, locals walk around, parade, hunt, work barefoot. All alarm bells ring! Colonialism! Poverty! Exploitation! Do not trust the...
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What Does Africa Need: Bridges or Castles?
Dungu Castle in Congo – Source: Wiki Commons In 1942, the Belgian colonial authority, Governor Schollaert was asked to build a two-way lane bridge in Dungu, the north-eastern-most corner of the Congo,...
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Life on the Trail, the Routine of Adventure
16 to 20 July 1929 – Katanga, Congo – “One of the camps during Mission Marin” François Dulière started off in Congo as an electrician in 1914, then a draughtsman for UMHK around 1917. He came to...
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Loss of a Child, the Silence Between Pictures
Silent and noisy. We achieved that as a family every single day. We stacked bird cages in rickety towers in living rooms, until it looked, smelled and sounded like Madagascar – the movie that is. The...
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Of Pierced Eyes and French Gothic
My great-great-grandfather had his picture taken around 1865. A dynamic pose. The conquering Van Dyke goatee. The well-accessorised 3 piece suit. Squared jaw. His pale eyes are looking straight at...
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Mapping the Unmapped
Katanga 1917-1957 Two maps of Katanga belonging to François Dulière, land surveyor in Congo. Right one including his notes. Every second of every minute of our lives, we know where we are. Within 64...
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WWI in Soissons, Henri Penotet and the Big Bomb
22 June 1917 – Soissons, France My great-grandfather Henri Penotet and a 240 dud shell (front side of the card) Henri Penotet, the father of my grandmother Suzanne Dulière of Jadotville fame, was...
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La Der des Ders
1914-1918 Postcard of WW1, war frontBelfort, France – 27th September 1915 War Memorials that list in every village strings of similar names, as if entire families were decimated in one event. They...
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Claude-Anne’s Africa
I am addressing you Emm. As you told me some days ago that you knew nothing of my life before, when I was a young girl over there [in Africa]… I know that the memories we keep, even with images, the...
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Hunting
The Hunt, Spirits and Nature Look, you ask me why I have so many photos of animals I shot, so many teeth, horns and skins? Pictures of antelopes shot in 1917, 1929, 1937 or 1943. I understand your...
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Superstition
Did you ever find out that your house was shielded from evil spirits by an ancient spell? I know, right! By now, I should not be surprised anymore by the underlying sub-plot of mystical, spiritualist...
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African Suburbia
1940-1955 1942 – Panda, Katanga, Belgian Congo The triage of memories continues. Albums pile up. They get thicker. Now covered in heavy bordeaux faux-leather, they look like spell books waiting for a...
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Loss of a Child, the Silence Between Pictures
Silent and noisy. We achieved that as a family every single day. We stacked bird cages in rickety towers in living rooms, until it looked, smelled and sounded like Madagascar – the movie that is. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Of Pierced Eyes and French Gothic
My great-great-grandfather had his picture taken around 1865. A dynamic pose. The conquering Van Dyke goatee. The well-accessorised 3 piece suit. Squared jaw. His pale eyes are looking straight at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Mapping the Unmapped
Katanga 1917-1957 Two maps of Katanga belonging to François Dulière, land surveyor in Congo. Right one including his notes. Every second of every minute of our lives, we know where we are. Within 64...
View ArticleClik here to view.
WWI in Soissons, Henri Penotet and the Big Bomb
22 June 1917 – Soissons, France My great-grandfather Henri Penotet and a 240 dud shell (front side of the card) Henri Penotet, the father of my grandmother Suzanne Dulière of Jadotville fame, was...
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