Horror, in hard focus
For the past nine years, Congo has kept drawing him (photojournalist
Marcus
Bleasdale) back. Conflicts among warlords, rebel groups
and government forces over control of the country's gold
mines have left almost 4 million people dead since 1998 and
created a humanitarian crisis in the country. Memorable
lines from
Mr. Conrad's classic novel, such as "the horror, the
horror", were not hard to represent in a photograph, he says,
gesturing to one that shows a young mother whose arm was
hacked off and eaten in front of her by her attackers when
she was trying to protect her son.
"Cannibalism is not the right word. I prefer to call it ritual killing," Mr. Bleasdale says with the calm assertion of someone who has encountered it. "The consumption of the flesh is empowerment. You destroy your enemy's spirits and you take them on, you take on his power."