Photos et Mission

mercredi 3 octobre 2007 par Webmaster

Contact us : mafr.namur@emails.be

Getting acquainted ...

It is a “PRESS SERVICE” founded in 1965 by the late Father Vincent de Decker, WF.
The aim has always been to provide quality photographic documents
to non-commercial press efforts of the missionary and NGO type.
Needless to insist that it does not cater to the needs of private collectors.

Its pictures are
exclusively concerned with the human condition at grass-root level.
They tell the story of ordinary folks in the poor countries,
their way of life, their struggles and hopes, their cry for justice.
There are hardly any pictures of special events and never of hot news.
The service does not collect portraits of personalities.

During nearly 40 years
the service has provided some 190 annotated reports,
comprising a total of 5000 big press-format photographs,
especially on Africa, but also on Asia and Latin America.
In the early days only in black and white, later in colour as well,
and more recently in high definition digital format.

The photographic collections of the service
go back to the beginning of last century
and sporadically cover most of the intervening years.
They become especially dense after the 2nd World War ;
with the increasing popularity of snap-shot photography.
Numerous missionaries, as well as European and African photo-reporters
have contributed to a patrimony of hundreds of thousands of pictorial documents.

Currently the service offers selected topics on CD-ROM.