“Saeurs of the Congo“ & “El Salvador -a Nation Held Hostage“ | Tariq Zaidi – FESCH.TV

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Tariq Zaidi will present 2 unique award-winning bodies of work in his presentation…

“Sapeurs of the Congo”
Zaidi presents a fashion culture of Kinshasa & Brazzaville: La Sape, Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes (Society of Ambiance-Makers & Elegant People). Its followers are known as »Sapeurs« (»Sapeuses« for women). Most have ordinary day jobs as taxi drivers, tailors and gardeners, but as soon as they clock out they transform themselves into debonair dandies. Sashaying through the streets they are treated like rock stars – turning heads, bringing ‘joie de vivre’ to their communities and defying their circumstances.

“El Salvador: a Nation Held Hostage”
Zaidi presents images from El Salvador – the gang violence and its impact on society from 2018 to 2020 when the country underwent a period of great political change. The photographs were taken across the country, and document MS-13 and La 18 gang members, police and paramilitary officials, prisons, murder sites, wakes, funerals, and the government’s war against the gangs. These photographs document the control that gangs have over society, the violence through which they operate, and the grief that the violence causes. They reveal how El Salvador has become a uniquely dystopian society, forcing thousands to migrate in the hope of a safer life elsewhere.