Léonard Pongo (b. 1988, Liège, Belgium) is a photographer and visual artist based between Brussels and Kinshasa. He started his career as a documentary photographer and gradually incorporated snapshots and abstract photography alongside video, multimedia installations and textile into his practice. Hailing from the Congolese diaspora, Léonard Pongo’s artistic exploration is deeply influenced by his Congolese heritage and the complex perceptions of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
His long-term project The Uncanny, where he focuses on urban Congolese society, won him several international awards and worldwide recognition. In his ongoing project Primordial Earth, Pongo explores the rich and diverse landscapes of the DRC, creating an allegorical narrative about creation, apocalypse, and the natural world’s power.
Pongo’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the U.S. His work has been the subject of solo shows in Brussels at Contretype (2015), Bozar (2021), The Agprognostic Temple (2021), and in Ostend at Mu.ZEE (2022). He has also taken part in several group exhibitions, including Festival du Jeu de Paume (2025), A World in Common at TATE (2023), The Act of Breathing at Horst Festival (2022), IncarNations at Bozar (2019), and JRSLM - Paradise Lost Again at the VUB (2019). He has also taken part in several international events, including the Dak'Art Biennial (Senegal, 2022 and 2024), BredaPhoto Festival (Netherlands, 2022), Lagos Photo Festival (Nigeria, 2020), the 6th Lubumbashi Biennial (DRC, 2019), Rencontres de Bamako (Mali, 2019) and Rencontres d'Arles (France, 2017).
His photographs have been published in renowned media such as the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and National Geographic. He was selected as one of PDN’s 30 New and Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2016 and has received several prestigious grants, including the Visura Grant for Outstanding Personal Project in 2017 and the Getty Images Reportage Grant in 2018.
Pongo’s work is part of several prominent collections, including KANAL–Centre Pompidou (Belgium), the Flemish Community (at FOMU in Belgium), Mu.ZEE (Belgium), the Chazen Museum of Art (USA), and Sindika Dokolo Foundation (Angola/Portugal).