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La présence du passé. Une histoire de la photographie au Burundi.

Duration du projet May 2007 – July 2008  

Five years after the end of World War Two Belgium founded the Centre d'Information et de Documentation du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi (CID). In 1955, the Office de l'Information et des Relations Publiques pour le Congo Belge et le Ruanda-Urundi, better known under its name Inforcongo, took over the functions of the CID. Inforcongo was a service within the Colonial Ministry in Brussels. It had two regional branches, one as part of the Gouvernement Géneral in Léopoldville (today Kinshasa) and the other in Usumbura (today Bujumbura). The Bureau de l'Information in Bujumbura included a Service Photographique (Ciné-Photo). Head of Ciné-Photo was until the end of 1961 the Belgian Pol Laval. He was subsequently replaced by the Burundian Lazare Hagerimana (*1938). The photographs of the Service Photographique are today located in the archives of the Agence Burundaise de Presse.


agenceburundaise

The archives of the ABP are Burundi's most comprehensive and complete photo archives. They are located in an ancient garage belonging to the premises of the press agency which are located in the capital's centre. The place is untempting but dry and dark so that the negatives and prints have survived the time since the 1950s pretty well. The archives' visual holdings bridge the period before and after the country's independence. The ABP itself was founded 1976 and is today subordinate to the Ministère de l'Information, de la Communication et des Relations avec le Parlement. It employs journalists in all of the country's 17 provinces.

ABP-1
art of these more than 10‘000 photographs, largely what was produced between 1955 and 1965, is being kept in hanging file folders. Each folder contains ideally the negative as well as one or more prints. The folder's cover features a photography as well as written information about when and where the photo was taken and who took it. Furthermore, there is a shelfmark, which refers to a register, which unfortunately is missing today. From about 1965, the majority of the prints was filed in old photo paper cartons and put on metal racks. These cartons bear only little or no captions and the referring negatives are missing or cannot be assigned properly anymore. Sometime in the 1980s the production of prints from the negatives for filing purposed was ceased. According to the archivist Bernadette Niyonzima the archives then were no longer in funds to buy photographic paper and chemicals. Instead the negatives were cut in stripes of six and put in plastic or parchment paper slips. From some of the negatives however contact prints were still made. Together with the negative stripes they were put in folders and stowed away in a large metal locker. Since a few years the negatives are kept coiled in the plastic case from where they were originally taken. A dozen of such cases was put in a paper bag and provided with a cursory caption, stowed away.

ABP-2
Since lately the photographers working for ABP and the official newspaper Le Renouveau (founded in 1978) whose images are also part of the ABP's archives work exclusively with digital cameras. Consequently, the photographs are now scattered over a great number of hard disks. What makes things even worse is that neither there is a central archiving system in place nor are there regulations concerning the management of digital data for the journalists mandatory. The same applies to the ABP. The consequences of a defect hard disk are easy to imagine. The problems that will arise when journalists have to change from one format to another need not to be highlighted. If no action is taken to meet the digital challenge, the national press archives will be empty or at least highly fragmentary and fortuitous as from about 2005.

ABP-3
In the midterm, something needs to be done with the existing photo archives with regard to their organisation, management and conservation. The negatives and prints should be rearranged into acid free material, a database established and preservation microfilming at least taken into consideration. Finally, all material should be stored in a place where temperature and humidity are permanently being controlled. A national strategy aiming at the collection, conservation and making accessible of the photographic images from professional as well as amateur photographers which are now scattered over Burundi and the globe should also be considered. For this purpose, adequate institutions with skilled stuff must be created. However, neither the National Archives nor the ABP, only to name two big governmental institutions, are able to achieve such a task. Last but not least the photographers too need to be trained and sensitised.

 

Related articles:

Rundbrief Fotografie, Vol. 15, 2008

Afriqueinvisu online, 30 June 2008

Africultures online, 19 October 2012

 

 

Five years after the end of World War Two Belgium founded the Centre d'Information et de Documentation du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi (CID). In 1955, the Office de l'Information et des Relations Publiques pour le Congo Belge et le Ruanda-Urundi, better known under its name Inforcongo, took over the functions of the CID. Inforcongo was a service within the Colonial Ministry in Brussels. It had two regional branches, one as part of the Gouvernement Géneral in Léopoldville (today Kinshasa) and the other in Usumbura (today Bujumbura). The Bureau de l'Information in Bujumbura included a Service Photographique (Ciné-Photo). Head of Ciné-Photo was until the end of 1961 the Belgian Pol Laval. He was subsequently replaced by the Burundian Lazare Hagerimana (*1938). The photographs of the Service Photographique are today located in the archives of the Agence Burundaise de Presse.

The archives of the ABP are Burundi's most comprehensive and complete photo archives. They are located in an ancient garage belonging to the premises of the press agency which are located in the capital's centre. The place is untempting but dry and dark so that the negatives and prints have survived the time since the 1950s pretty well. The archives' visual holdings bridge the period before and after the country's independence. The ABP itself was founded 1976 and is today subordinate to the Ministère de l'Information, de la Communication et des Relations avec le Parlement. It employs journalists in all of the country's 17 provinces.

Part of these more than 10‘000 photographs, largely what was produced between 1955 and 1965, is being kept in hanging file folders. Each folder contains ideally the negative as well as one or more prints. The folder's cover features a photography as well as written information about when and where the photo was taken and who took it. Furthermore, there is a shelfmark, which refers to a register, which unfortunately is missing today (Fig. 1). From about 1965, the majority of the prints was filed in old photo paper cartons and put on metal racks. These cartons bear only little or no captions and the referring negatives are missing or cannot be assigned properly anymore. Sometime in the 1980s the production of prints from the negatives for filing purposed was ceased. According to the archivist Bernadette Niyonzima the archives then were no longer in funds to buy photographic paper and chemicals. Instead the negatives were cut in stripes of six and put in plastic or parchment paper slips. From some of the negatives however contact prints were still made. Together with the negative stripes they were put in folders and stowed away in a large metal locker. Since a few years the negatives are kept coiled in the plastic case from where they were originally taken. A dozen of such cases was put in a paper bag and provided with a cursory caption, stowed away.

Since lately the photographers working for ABP and the official newspaper Le Renouveau (founded in 1978) whose images are also part of the ABP's archives work exclusively with digital cameras. Consequently, the photographs are now scattered over a great number of hard disks. What makes things even worse is that neither there is a central archiving system in place nor are there regulations concerning the management of digital data for the journalists mandatory. The same applies to the ABP. The consequences of a defect hard disk are easy to imagine. The problems that will arise when journalists have to change from one format to another need not to be highlighted. If no action is taken to meet the digital challenge, the national press archives will be empty or at least highly fragmentary and fortuitous as from about 2005.

In the midterm, something needs to be done with the existing photo archives with regard to their organisation, management and conservation. The negatives and prints should be rearranged into acid free material, a database established and preservation microfilming at least taken into consideration. Finally, all material should be stored in a place where temperature and humidity are permanently being controlled. A national strategy aiming at the collection, conservation and making accessible of the photographic images from professional as well as amateur photographers which are now scattered over Burundi and the globe should also be considered. For this purpose, adequate institutions with skilled stuff must be created. However, neither the National Archives nor the ABP, only to name two big governmental institutions, are able to achieve such a task. Last but not least the photographers too need to be trained and sensitised.
- See more at: http://www.africultures.com/php/index.php?nav=article&no=11087#sthash.PVzINPGS.dpuf

 

 

 

 

 

Five years after the end of World War Two Belgium founded the Centre d'Information et de Documentation du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi (CID). In 1955, the Office de l'Information et des Relations Publiques pour le Congo Belge et le Ruanda-Urundi, better known under its name Inforcongo, took over the functions of the CID. Inforcongo was a service within the Colonial Ministry in Brussels. It had two regional branches, one as part of the Gouvernement Géneral in Léopoldville (today Kinshasa) and the other in Usumbura (today Bujumbura). The Bureau de l'Information in Bujumbura included a Service Photographique (Ciné-Photo). Head of Ciné-Photo was until the end of 1961 the Belgian Pol Laval. He was subsequently replaced by the Burundian Lazare Hagerimana (*1938). The photographs of the Service Photographique are today located in the archives of the Agence Burundaise de Presse.

The archives of the ABP are Burundi's most comprehensive and complete photo archives. They are located in an ancient garage belonging to the premises of the press agency which are located in the capital's centre. The place is untempting but dry and dark so that the negatives and prints have survived the time since the 1950s pretty well. The archives' visual holdings bridge the period before and after the country's independence. The ABP itself was founded 1976 and is today subordinate to the Ministère de l'Information, de la Communication et des Relations avec le Parlement. It employs journalists in all of the country's 17 provinces.

Part of these more than 10‘000 photographs, largely what was produced between 1955 and 1965, is being kept in hanging file folders. Each folder contains ideally the negative as well as one or more prints. The folder's cover features a photography as well as written information about when and where the photo was taken and who took it. Furthermore, there is a shelfmark, which refers to a register, which unfortunately is missing today (Fig. 1). From about 1965, the majority of the prints was filed in old photo paper cartons and put on metal racks. These cartons bear only little or no captions and the referring negatives are missing or cannot be assigned properly anymore. Sometime in the 1980s the production of prints from the negatives for filing purposed was ceased. According to the archivist Bernadette Niyonzima the archives then were no longer in funds to buy photographic paper and chemicals. Instead the negatives were cut in stripes of six and put in plastic or parchment paper slips. From some of the negatives however contact prints were still made. Together with the negative stripes they were put in folders and stowed away in a large metal locker. Since a few years the negatives are kept coiled in the plastic case from where they were originally taken. A dozen of such cases was put in a paper bag and provided with a cursory caption, stowed away.

Since lately the photographers working for ABP and the official newspaper Le Renouveau (founded in 1978) whose images are also part of the ABP's archives work exclusively with digital cameras. Consequently, the photographs are now scattered over a great number of hard disks. What makes things even worse is that neither there is a central archiving system in place nor are there regulations concerning the management of digital data for the journalists mandatory. The same applies to the ABP. The consequences of a defect hard disk are easy to imagine. The problems that will arise when journalists have to change from one format to another need not to be highlighted. If no action is taken to meet the digital challenge, the national press archives will be empty or at least highly fragmentary and fortuitous as from about 2005.

In the midterm, something needs to be done with the existing photo archives with regard to their organisation, management and conservation. The negatives and prints should be rearranged into acid free material, a database established and preservation microfilming at least taken into consideration. Finally, all material should be stored in a place where temperature and humidity are permanently being controlled. A national strategy aiming at the collection, conservation and making accessible of the photographic images from professional as well as amateur photographers which are now scattered over Burundi and the globe should also be considered. For this purpose, adequate institutions with skilled stuff must be created. However, neither the National Archives nor the ABP, only to name two big governmental institutions, are able to achieve such a task. Last but not least the photographers too need to be trained and sensitised.
- See more at: http://www.africultures.com/php/index.php?nav=article&no=11087#sthash.PVzINPGS.dpuf