Guy Tillim
Mai Mai militia in training near Beni, eastern DRC, for immediate deployment with the APC (Armée Populare du Congo), the army of the RCD-KIS-ML

Mai Mai militia in training near Beni, eastern DRC, for immediate deployment with the APC (Armée Populare du Congo), the army of the RCD-KIS-ML

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Artist Guy Tillim (South African, born 1962)South African, born 1962

CultureSouth African

Titles

Mai Mai militia in training near Beni, eastern DRC, for immediate deployment with the APC (Armée Populare du Congo), the army of the RCD-KIS-ML

DateDecember 2002

Place depictedBeni, Democratic Republic of the Congo

MediumInkjet print

DimensionsImage: 31 1/8 × 20 13/16 in. (79 × 52.8 cm)
Sheet: 33 9/16 × 23 3/8 in. (85.3 × 59.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of Charles Dee Mitchell

Object number2019.356

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionCovered in handmade camouflage and armed with wooden poles, the Mai Mai were some of the last combatants in the Second Congo War, a conflict that lasted from 1998 to 2003. Guy Tillim photographed throughout the conflict, focusing on the personal stories of individuals—civilians and soldiers—affected by years of devastating war that caused the death and displacement of millions. Tillim noted, “Perhaps the photographer’s means of communication best rests in accepting the background for what it is, aberrant, different, brutal, and looking for a communal human thread that links us all.”
ProvenanceCharles Dee Mitchell, Dallas; given to MFAH, 2019.
Exhibition History"Through an African Lens: Sub-Saharan Photography from the Museum's Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 27–November 8, 2020.

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