Songs of the Wal�s Tapa dura - 2018

Self-taught French photographer Patrick Willocq (b. 1969) has lived and worked for 34 years in diverse cities around the world, including Kinshasa, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Paris. He was shortlisted in the Professional Portraiture category of the 2016 Sony World Photography Awards with his series 'Wal 2me Regard'. He first developed a love for the Democratic Republic of Congo whilst living there as a teenager. In 2012, following a trip back to the Congo, Patrick decided to devote himself entirely to photography after working for multinationals in Asia Pacific for over 20 years. Tired of images that stigmatised the nation, Patrick's work pays tribute to the "beauty, simplicity and dignity" of daily life in the D.R.C. Azu Nwagbogu is the founder and director of the African Artists' Foundation (AAF), a non-profit organisation based in Lagos, Nigeria that is dedicated to the promotion and development of contemporary African arts and artists. The collector and curator is also the founder of numerous other projects supporting and celebrating African arts and phography, including the National Art Competition, LagosPhoto Festival and Art Base Africa, which is a new virtual space to discover and learn about contemporary African Art and diaspora. Alain Mingam is a photojournalist, exhibition organiser and agent, based in Paris, France. Laurence Butet-Roch is a Canadian freelance writer, photo editor and photographer. Martin Boilo Mbula is an ethnomusicologist and the director of the National Museum of Mbandaka in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).