In Nigeria, the media focuses on music artistes, actors and footballers, with little or no attention to this group of people who provide timeless content captured in either still or motion pictures.
In the past, photographers were seen as jobless people who go about with old cameras doing wash and take pictures. Today, its a whole new world of art, creativity and aestheticism.
Some photographers specialize in celebrity shots, others do photo-journalism and some others love to travel and take nature just the way it is. Whichever the case, good photographers need to be honored, irrespective of the kind of niche they’ve created for themself.
These Nigerian Photographers Will Inspire You
1. Obi Somto
Mr Obi Somto, (pictured above) was born on August 1, 1988, in Lagos and holds a degree in Banking and Finance from Babcock University. He is not just a photographer but is also into the art of drawing, painting, moulding and carving. He launched his career as a graphic designer and illustrator who brings a unique blend of experience, vision and distinction to his style of photography. He has photographed several Nigerian celebrities and dignitaries, including former president Goodluck Jonathan.
2. Adeola Olagunju
Adeola Olagunju is a rising photographer who lives and works in Lagos. Her images speak volumes as they stage the photographer’s attempt to break free from “mental shackles.” Her works have been exhibited at Lagos Photo and she won the Young Artfund Amsterdam Award in 2013.
3. Kelechi Amadi
Kelechi Amadi
Kelechi Amadi-Obi is one of the most popular celebrity photographer in Nigeria. He holds a Law degree and was called to bar in 1993, however, his passion lies in full-time studio art. He has earned international renown for both photography and painting. Kelechi Amadi has a huge list of reputable clients he works with and they include Guinness Nigeria PLC, MTN Nigeria PLC, PZ Nigeria PLC,British American Tobacco, The Ford Foundation, Prima Garnet Ogilvy, SO&U, Insight Grey, Nigerian Flour Mills and Orange Drugs Nigeria Ltd.
4. Aisha Augie-Kuta
In 2011, Aisha Augie-Kuta won the Future Award for Creative Artist of the Year for her Faces of Africa portrait series, a collection of portraits of female faces elaborately painted to re-enact the vibrant patterns of the Surma Tribe of Ethiopia. She is based in Abuja and has a mixed-race, mixed-tribe experience. Her latest project offers viewers a glimpse of the unseen side of the Fulani mud huts in Abuja, which, from the outside, appear to blend into the landscape.
5. TY Bello
TY Bello is most recently known for bringing to limelight and transforming a bread seller, Olajumoke Orisaguna, to a model. She is a singer as well as a fantastic photographer. The Ogun State born Nigerian is a member of the Nigerian photography collective, Depth of Field.
She attained a degree in economics from the University of Lagos and briefly practiced journalism before settling for photography. The former member of the defunct group Kush, is the official photographer to the Former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan. She also works for Thisday fashion magazine.
6. George Osodi
George Osodi
George Osodi is an internationally acclaimed photojournalist whose daring and honest images have changed the face of Nigerian photography. After he returned to his home in the Niger Delta, Osodi spent four years capturing the environmental degradation of the region caused by multi-national oil firms. More recently, Osodi has turned his focus to the urgency of documenting and archiving traditional Nigerian culture.
His Nigerian Monarchs series captures the ‘visual drama’ of the diverse traditional cultures enshrined in these royal structures that, though stripped of constitutional powers in the 1960s, point to the deep roots of Nigeria’s pre-colonial past.
7. Ade Adekola
Ade Adekola creates visual representations that go beyond what the eye can see. His ground-breaking work, Icons of a Metropolis, captures the dynamism of urban life, re-imagining figures on the street as 20 character archetypes, ‘icons’, conceived to define the spirit of survival that fuels life in Lagos.
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