Digger’s portraits

Kienze is a cassiterite mine in the deep savannah of the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where ore is dug by hand. Unemployment brings thousands of men from various tribal and ethnic backgrounds to the crowded mining camp, where unique local customs, vocabularies, and economic tendencies have developed over time. These portraits were shot in 2012 during the making of the ethnographic film Kienze.