Ambroise Ngaimoko
Born in 1949, Angola.
Lives in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 1961, Ngaimoko moved with his family to Kinshasa. There he worked as a mechanic, then as a technician for an open-air cinema, before he became assistant to his uncle Marques Ndodão in 1968, who ran two photo studios, and who gave him a camera Yashica 6×6. It was in Kitambo in 1971 that he opened the Studio 3Z, a named picked to symbolise the three Zaïres: the country, the currency and the river. Young people who came to the studio remember it because of the constantly changing backdrops.He gained recognition in the course of the 1970s due to an unprecedented technique, in which he developed two portraits on the same sheet, using the same negative twice.This cult of cloning is reminiscent of the rites performed for a lost twin. In the full swing of “Zaïrization” there was a shortage of 6×6 black & white film and, with the eventual arrival of color film, Ngaimoko lost his clientele. He resigned himself to using the format 24×36 for his work on identity.In 1997, he renamed his studio 3C (for the three Congos).
HERITAGE : Carte Blanche to Omar Victor Diop
March 6th – May 8th, 2021
MAGNIN-A
118, boulevard Richard Lenoir – 75011 Paris
