Congopresse was a photographic agency active in the Belgian Congo and in the early years of the Republic of the Congo. It was founded in the aftermath of the Second World War, under the aegis of the state-sponsored Centre d'information et de documentation du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. The agency worked with about a dozen photographers, and was the main source of documentary photography and photojournalism from Congo in the decade either side of independence.
Congopresse was a photographic agency active in the Belgian Congo and in the early years of the Republic of the Congo. It was founded in the aftermath of the Second World War, under the aegis of the state-sponsored Centre d'information et de documentation du Congo belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. The agency worked with about a dozen photographers, and was the main source of documentary photography and photojournalism from Congo in the decade either side of independence. Congopresse largely relied on European photographers in its early years. Joseph Makula was hired as its first Congolese photographer in 1956. The European staff all left at independence, and in the 1960s Joseph Makula trained a new generation of Congolese photographers to replace them, including Mpate Sulia, the agency's only female photographer. The agency closed in 1968. The Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium currently maintains the Congopresse archives.