Your cart is empty

    Shop now
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry" | DER GREIF
    From the series "I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry"
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF
    DER GREIF

    I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry

    Artist Feature of Chrystel Mukeba

    The first chapter of the project “I’ve Never Seen My Father Cry” here presented is “Homecoming,” an exploration of my father’s return to Congo after forty-six years of absence, a journey deeply marked by the contrast between his childhood memories and the reality of the country. After so many years, he expected to rediscover familiar places and sensations, but what he encountered was very different: a transformed country, sometimes unrecognizable, where he rarely dared to go outside.

    Through photography, I captured this tension between memory and the present, working with landscapes, portraits, and scenes from everyday life. Each image bears witness to the emotional impact of this return – not only on him, but also on me, as I observed his silences, his hesitations, his lost gaze.

    This project goes beyond my father’s personal story. It speaks about exile, identity, and the gap between memory and reality. It resonates with anyone who has had to leave their country and, one day, faces the question of return. Through my lens, I seek to translate this distance between past and present, between the mental image of a place and its inevitable transformation.

    It is a story of nostalgia, loss, and resilience: a reflection on how we cling to memories and what happens when those memories no longer find an echo in the real world.

    Chrystel Mukeba is part of Issue 18 by Guest Editor Hank Willis Thomas.

    DER GREIF
    Chrystel Mukeba

    Brussels-based photographer Chrystel Mukeba, currently studying at ARBA-ESA, uses film to explore intimacy, roots and identity. Her work is a recurring effort to freeze the ephemeral, turning everyday scenes and portraits into poignant studies of fragility. 2026 marks a career milestone: following an exhibition at the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi in May, she will debut a new project at Hangar Art Center in Brussels in September as a selected winner of the “Reimaging Photography” call for the medium’s bicentenary.