Congo Through The Lens of Robert Nzaou

At World of Us we get to meet many creative minds. In December 2023, Robert Nzaou joined us as a co-creator during our Participatory Art Direction experience in Kouilou, Congo, documenting stories and natural elements that will be digitised to bring to life Congo’s tales in the upcoming World of Us Game. Most recently, we had the pleasure of getting to speak about his work documenting the daily life of those around him in the country he calls home.

WOU: 
Maybe you can start by telling our readers how you became a photographer and what were your earliest memories of pursuing a creative life?

Robert:
I didn't grow up in an artistic family. My father was a teacher and had hopes of us becoming engineers and doctors. I never even really knew if he had an artistic side to him.

When I was young, music opened my door to the arts. Rap music was my storytelling. I didn’t speak English at the time but it was the beginning of my passion for it – Tupac, The Fugees, so many artists. When rap music grew in popularity in France I was able to fall even more in love with it with French being one of many languages spoken in Congo. I could tell from the lyrics what it was like in the streets of Marseille and Paris even though I had never been. Just from the lyrics.

When I wanted to go to university the war in Congo meant I had to go to South Africa to study. That’s where I found photography. Because of my love of storytelling it didn’t feel different to me to find a new art form that made me feel the same way.

WOU: 
What would you say your photography is about? What are the messages you are trying to convey with your work?

Robert:
Firstly, I wanted to talk about my country – the Republic of Congo. Most times you hear about Congo they are talking about Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC. I wanted to be able to show people who we are – what we look like, our struggles, and our joy.

My main love – my first love – was street photography. Photography is often just seen as capturing reality but actually you can create new worlds with photography. You can show people what you hope to see, not just things as they currently are. As artists, I think we have a responsibility to create these situations for you to see them too. There’s often chaos in artists’ heads and you need to try to recreate that.

WOU: 
Can you tell us a little bit about your work with World of Us and how you became part of the project?

Robert:
When I first saw the work that TALES originally did with Congo Tales, I thought to myself how can something of this magnitude and beauty happen and I'm not even aware of it? I did not want to miss another chance to help tell these stories.

When I met the TALES team at an exhibition, I wasted no time in telling them how much I would want to be a part of the next one they would do. A year later, my moment came and they told me they were coming to create a game for children about the stories and nature of my home country.

I was so excited to be able to work with World of Us – to tell the stories that I have always wanted people to know. I wanted to play a part in making sure that future generations would be able to see the images and better understand the country for all it has to offer.

As artists we have the duty of taking you guys into a dimension that you're not necessarily comfortable with, or even aware of. I think what’s beautiful is that it is not always obvious what we want the wider world to know.

I get to go out and to explore until I find the things that I want people around the world to understand about us better. Other countries are showing their best features to the world and Congo should be the same. My work gets to play a part in this mission. I am grateful to the people who have seen my work and come to visit and see for themselves the beauty that is here.

You can see Robert’s work on his website and who knows, maybe it will inspire you to visit the Republic of Congo.