Born in 1949, Angola.
Lives in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 1961, Ngaimoko moved with his family to Kinshasa. There, he worked as a mechanic, then as a technician for an open-air cinema, before becoming an assistant to his uncle Marques Ndodão in 1968, who ran two photo studios and gave him a Yashica 6x6 camera. It was in Kitambo, in 1971, that he opened Studio 3Z, a name chosen to symbolize the three Zaïres: the country, the currency, and the river. Young people who came to the studio remember it for its constantly changing backdrops.
He gained recognition throughout the 1970s thanks to an unprecedented technique in which he produced two portraits on the same sheet, using the same negative twice. This cult of cloning is reminiscent of rites performed for a lost twin. At the height of “Zairization,” there was a shortage of 6x6 black-and-white film, and with the eventual arrival of color film, Ngaimoko lost much of his clientele. He then resigned himself to using the 24x36 format to develop his identity-based work. In 1997, he renamed his studio 3C (for the three Congos).
Collections
Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris, France
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
