Sapeurs: Ladies & Gentlemen of the Congo: Ladies and Gentlemen of the Congo

Sapeurs is a beautiful book, and beautifully constructed.First the book. It's approximately an A4 size. The spine is a beautiful yellow canvas, which has a wonderful texture when holding. The front and back are colour printed (so no dustcover, which isn't necessary anyway). The pages are extremely thick, obviously for colour photographs. The pictures are extremely sharp, holding a lot of detail and displaying a depth of colours which is captivating.Next the content. There are no surprises on the content, it's self evident in the title and blurb. There is a wide array of subjects– men, women and some children too. And it isn't the same few subjects over and over, this is a diverse photography collection of people spanning several years. The crisp paper is superb for showing the details too, and I found myself looking at the details, not just the subject.Placement of the subjects too added to the fascination, people in their home, on the street at work or other locations. There is no effort, I can discern at least, to 'scrub' the environment. It's a harsh environment and that is shown. The pride of the people is evident too.I whole heartedly recommend this book. It's beautiful, considered and a pleasure to leaf through.I have one niggle though, and a wish. My niggle is with the opening statement in the book 'But until now, no one had captured theses fashionable dandies in the low-income communities they call home.' That is misleading, Gentlemen of Bacongo (by Daniele Tamagni) was published over 10 years ago and covered the sapeurs of the Congo too. That book goes into more depth into their lives and stories.Having said that, this is undoubtedly more beautiful and is a stunning book. I only wish that there was an index of sapeurs to ease cross-references.

A stunning photo book, highly recommended!

A beautiful coffee table book full of surprises. Brilliant photographs.

This book is Amazing the photos are surreal

Fantastic images Beautifully well put together,wth classy.

Interesting book