Wole Soyinka

Wole Soyinka the Nigerian Nobel Laureate winner was invited to the Muson center sometime last year, to talk about the kind of music he loves to listen to, the ones he wrote and how he got the inspiration to write them. He also talked about how the different genre of music has inspired him. It was my first opportunity to take photographs of him. Here are the many faces and expressions of Wole Soyinka from the talk. Enjoy the post.

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Oil Subsidy removal protest

The whole of Nigeria was brought to a stand still during the January 9th Labour strike to protest the removal of oil subsidy, Lagos streets were like ghost towns. Every business establishment was grounded, and people came out en mass to protest the unpopular policy by the government. As a photographer I had to give an eyewitness  report of events at the protest square which was a replica of the Tahir square protest in Egypt. Both young and old came out to show their discomfort and disapproval of the present government. People who came out to protest also included music artists, Nollywood stars, human right activists etc, to mention a few. They all had one voice and to cap it all, it was violence free. The police were seen around but the expressions on them was that of sympathy and support for the cause the people were protesting against. The atmosphere at the protest ground was replica of a concert or carnival. The musicians present, entertained people with music that were politically motivated, with the likes of Femi Kuti mentioning names of corrupt leaders, and referring back to when his father Fela Anikulapo Kuti was alive and fighting for this same cause years ago. It is obvious the government has failed the people with their unpopular policies, and the people, together with Labour congress will stop at nothing to protest and fight for their right, It will not be business as usual as any saboteurs will be punished. The images below will tell stories words cant. Also i will like you to read the response written by a friend to the president’s speech.

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Group photos

This is one photo you can not afford to miss out when shooting a wedding. It can be boring but if you know how to carry people along, you can make them do fun things that make great images.

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African Elegance

These is a series of paintings celebrating African traditional adornment. The works were produced for a solo exhibition I had in London 2years ago. Most of the pieces are predominantly oil on canvas, but I experimented using other medium like charcoal, and etching on the canvas, to create texture. Although it was an experiment, it turned out successful and it is something I am adopting on my new works you will be seeing soon. To get our new post, please subscribe. Enjoy.

 

 

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My journey so far documenting weddings.

I am privilege to have documented a few weddings both home in Nigeria and while living in England. I started off photography shooting documentaries and fineart, because of my artistic background as a painter/graphic artist. I never really liked events especially wedding. Reason is I didn’t meet people who shoot weddings creatively, so for that reason I was uninspired. Most of the wedding photos I use to see then were nothing close to been creative until I started to see the works of people like Jeff Ascough, Catherine Leonard and also my good friends Skee, Jide Alakija and Kayode Martins (Xsightn), who pretty much pulled my attention to the fact that you can be as artistic as you want with any form of photography. I now enjoy documenting weddings a lot especially the traditional. The richness of the culture with the array of colourful attires make the event even more special. As much as I have realised that good equipments are an integral part of being a photographer, your ability to observe, and being able to capture rare and genuine moments stands you out. Here I have a compilation of some old works that represent what I have done so far in the past.  Enjoy and please leave comments. This will further help in my quest for creating better images.

 

 

 

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Elegance from within

This is a project I did last year. An artist friend, Peju Alatise commissioned me to photograph the jewellery she made. I found it exciting, as this seemed like a continuation of my African elegance paintings series which I exhibited in London two years ago. African elegance is a study and celebration of African traditional adornment. I  had to think of an interesting way to show these beautiful pieces and also tell a story with them. I needed to get a model with good looks and defined features, which I think is very important. If you get a good model, and you have an eye for anatomy and good lighting, your work will come out great. I shot using a one light source and a reflector, and here is the result. Enjoy it.

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