Will Work for Food

There's not a lot of commerce in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the result that there's not a lot of work. The majority of people are subsistence farmers, and in many parts of the country war prevents them from doing much farming, which in turn means they struggle to find sustenance.

The main industries (they are interrelated) in the D.R.C. are mineral extraction, aid and war, and aid organizations that operate in the D.R.C. are a significant source of employment, especially outside of the country's few major cities. Every morning outside the gates of aid organizations that are actually doing work (there appear to be quite a few that simply exist in as a signboard and a caretaker, having run out of operating funds or capable managers), local men assemble, hoping to be selected to work on projects that can't be handled by the organization's full-time staff.

I shot the above photographs in Bunia, in Ituri province, at the end of a long day that looked as though it was a lot longer for the man in front of the lens. Still, he put food on the table for his family.