Material In Transit 1

In the early 20th century, the Katanga region was organized as a territory dedicated to mining. The development of copper mines was accompanied by the construction of infrastructure particularly railways designed to facilitate the transport of raw materials to ports and industrial centers located outside the territory. The railroad thus became the central element of a logistics system that transformed the raw materials extracted from the ground into flows circulating within a global economy.

This photographic project explores this logic of circulation through a series of images created in the studio. By removing real landscapes and infrastructure, the studio space allows for a focus on the fundamental relationships between the body, matter, and movement. A dirt floor is introduced into the image to evoke the direct link between the ore and the territory.

The model wears a yellow and blue outfit, evoking the colors associated with the Independent State of the Congo and later the Belgian Congo, introducing a subtle historical reference. The images, constructed as a sequence of simple gestures contact, carrying, movement, placement, or waiting offer a visual reflection on the extraction and transport systems that have shaped the history of Katanga.