Savva Svet (@sastastic) is a filmmaker who has spent the past decade shooting across 5 continents and 25 countries. His work ranges from filming in the jungles of Peru with Werner Herzog to documenting refugee camps in Jordan and Iraq, to former child soldiers in the Congo and the spirited Bamum kingdom in Cameroon.
Passage into Congo, Savva’s debut photo book, offers a striking visual record of his first journey to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Goma in particular. The trip was made in collaboration with Lens on Life, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering at-risk youth through photography. Armed with his Widelux and a regular 35mm camera, Savva set out to document the people, landscapes, and fleeting moments that defined his experience. The resulting images reflect a deep sense of curiosity and connection.
Savva, firstly, thank you for accepting the invitation.
Q: I have to say, I sensed the significance of your work from the first photo you’ve sent me - the one of the soldiers marching through the jungle. So I have to ask: nowadays, for a project of this caliber, most photographers would likely opt for modern tools, and for a thousand valid reasons. Yet you chose to shoot everything on film. Why? Is it about the reults, or is it more tied to your creative process?
A: There’s something about picking up an old beast like the Widelux, or any 35mm camera, that forces you to actually be there.To look, to wait, to feel the pulse of a place or a person before you press that shutter. If I shot digital, I’d have 30 times more photos….but they’d mean less. Film gives you a finite roll, a handful of chances, and no guarantee. That pressure sharpens you. It slows you down. You hope for the best, and when you nail it, albeit weeks later once you’ve gotten it developed, it’s such a rewarding feeling.
I had also never used a widelux before my trip to the Congo, so it was exciting to see what this thing could put out.
Q: Every one of your photographs have a very present cinematic feel. It’s seems clear that film has had a big impact on your work (you even filmed with Werner Herzog in Peru!). In what ways has cinema shaped your approach to photography?
A: Cinema has been a part of me since I was a kid. Editing films taught me that creating mood and atmosphere takes time—and if it works, it lingers with you. Photography is a bit different; you don’t have the luxury of a sequence, just one frame to tell the whole story. Which in some ways can be harder to achieve. My documentary background pushes me to find that story beat in every moment, to wait, observe, and let the scene unfold before pressing the shutter. It’s still storytelling, just distilled into a single breath.
Q: Did you choose to acquire the Widelux for this exact cinematic quality? Or was it something else entirely?
A: One must first acknowledge Mr. Jeff Bridges for truly bringing the Widelux into the spotlight. I had never even heard of it until I saw him speak about it. With every big trip, I like to pick up a new piece of gear to experiment with, and the wide, almost cinematic aspect of the Widelux immediately intrigued me—especially coming from a film and horizontal framing background. But it wasn’t until I discovered the work of Jens Olof Lasthein—particularly his haunting series shot with a Widelux across the former Yugoslavia—that I really understood what this camera was capable of. That’s when my interest turned into something deeper.
Q: Passage into Congo - your debut photo book - was born from your collaboration with Lens on Life, an organization that empowers at-risk youth through photography. The Congo remains one of the world's poorest countries. While spending time with people living under such difficult conditions, did you find it challenging to uncover a sense of empowerment - or did your time there reveal a different, perhaps unexpected, perspective?
A: People can cling to their bubbles and ideas about a place, but I’ve learned a smile and a handshake go further than any agenda one might have. I travel with no point to prove, probably curious to a fault, and whatever misconceptions I start with usually gets disproven quickly.
Goma, in the Congo, carries the weight of its history—civil unrest, hardship—but strip that back, and life is the same at its core: waking up, hustling for a meal, chasing the job, taking care of family, working towards a dream. The struggles are heavier, but when you drop your ego and listen, you find a world that’s raw, alive, and full of unexpected strength and hope. LensOnLife gave me the chance to see that firsthand, and watching the kids there with so much drive and ambition—it stays with you.
Q: Editing a photo book is never easy. And in Passage into Congo, you chose to blend regular 35mm photos with panoramic images. Was it challenging to weave these formats together into a cohesive visual narrative?
A: I’d never done a photo book before, and man, it’s a whole different beast than cutting a film. With a film, you’ve got movement, sound, rhythm—here, it’s just you, a stack of stills, and the pressure to make them talk to each other. I’m still not sure if what I did even works—I’m figuring it out as I go. It’s made me see photo books differently, especially those high-brow “artsy” ones with a single tiny photo floating on a white page. I get it…but I don’t think I’ll ever do it that way. Maybe I should. Maybe I won’t. I don’t know.
Q: You’ve traveled extensively over the years, visiting countries most tourists never set foot in. Are you planning future projects with the material you've gathered along the way? And if so, can we expect to see the Widelux make a comeback?
A: I’m always thinking about what to do with the material I’ve gathered, though sometimes I wonder—does the world really need another photo book? Still, I can’t help but dive in. Right now, I’m deep into a documentary on African antiquities, particularly from Cameroon, in the northwest region of Foumban. We’ve been there twice—once during Ramadan and again during the Nguon festival, which has been going on for over 450 years—and the stories there are incredible. So I’m working on a new photo book titled From Yaoundé to Foumban, and yes, the Widelux is absolutely a big part of it. Should have that out first half of 2026 (the book!)
Thanks again for the interview! We wish you a thousand new journeys so we can continue seeing the world through your lens.
Thanks for the kind words and for reaching out. I appreciate the conversation more than you know, and yeah…here’s to a thousand more roads in strange corners of the world, jammed up film cameras, and moments that make it all worth while.
You can order a copy of Passage into Congo by reaching out directly to Savva on Instagram on @sastastic!
