DRC Archives | All the Magic

Bearing Witness: Documenting Displacement and Resilience in Eastern DRC

by Crystal StaffordDocumentary, Landscapes, Photos February 7, 2025October 9, 2026Comments are Disabled

The humanitarian crisis unfolding in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is both staggering and deeply personal. As a documentary photographer, I’ve spent over a decade documenting the impact of projects working to provide aid during humanitarian emergencies around the world. While documenting displacement in Eastern DRC, the stories I encounter in and around Goma …

Seven Minutes

by Crystal StaffordDocumentary, Landscapes, Life, Photos June 29, 2022September 29, 2022Comments are Disabled

SEVEN MINUTES I was living in a hospital in Kananga in Kasai Central Province in 2012, shortly before the start of ASSP. My church hired me to renovate the hospital, but the funding was sparse. My room was a barren, concrete box with no electricity and no running water. Hopefully I would be able to …

Bright Eyes

by Crystal StaffordDocumentary, Magic December 31, 2018April 26, 2019Comments are Disabled

I love photos like this, a true representation of the world right now. A healthy baby, bright-eyed and vibrant… and in this case a little confused. It is true, child mortality is high in Congo compared to most of the rest of the world. In 2016 the rate was 94 deaths per 1000 live births compared to …

It’s Not What it Looks Like

by Crystal StaffordDocumentary August 29, 2018August 30, 2018Comments are Disabled

It looks like he’s digging a grave right? He isn’t. He is digging a latrine. I took this photo last year while we were building a latrine out of local materials in Kawadje, a village just outside of Gbadolite, Nord Ubangi in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Magic 241/365, Not a Grave Digger, DRC, 2017

Les Chefs

by Crystal StaffordDocumentary August 13, 2018April 26, 2019Comments are Disabled

This is one of my all-time favorite photos of Antonio and his best friend, Jim, at the opening of ASSP’s first health center, Mamu Wetu. This health center was special because Antonio got to build much of it with his own hands. Jim was his logistician throughout the building of this and many others in …

The Mother

by Crystal StaffordDocumentary, Life, Magic August 11, 2018October 5, 2018Comments are Disabled

This is one of my favorite maternity photos from my time in Congo. I feel like this woman depicts the essence of what it is to be a woman. She is fierce. She is love. She is raw. She is magic. She is the fear-inducing power that, in ancient times, sent women to the stake. …

The White Girl!

by Crystal StaffordLife August 8, 2018October 5, 2018Comments are Disabled

This photo depicts the scene of any village I visited outside of Kinshasa. People came running when they heard about the white girl just down the road. Our project, ASSP, worked in the most remote and hardest to reach locations. Often we could only get there by UN aircraft. Sometimes only by helicopter. So people weren’t …

Moving Forward to Myself

by Crystal StaffordLife, Photos August 4, 2018August 5, 2018Comments are Disabled

I am turning 40 in just one week and I am kind of freaking out. Today when I was in yoga I made strength and vitality my intention. This is what I want for my 40th birthday. I want to be strong again. And I had the thought “I want to get back to myself.” …

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Moments of Me

by Crystal StaffordDocumentary, Life, Magic August 3, 2018August 5, 2018Comments are Disabled

This is a photo I took while writing in my journal in a dark hotel in Gbadolite. I was writing about how content I was to be in that dark, dirty place. Because it was real. It’s the way people really live near the lowest levels of poverty. Actually, they live in mud huts just …

Some of the best meals are cooked by the toilet.

by Crystal StaffordDocumentary August 1, 2018August 5, 2018Comments are Disabled

Seriously, there was something about the utter lack of comforts in this hotel, Chez Yege in Gabdolite, that made my just add boiled water meals from REI taste so good, even when cooked next to this disgusting toilet. My favorite was the Mac N Cheese. Duh. I was cooking this meal next to the shower (which consisted of …