the lagosphoto '13 viewfinder

LagosPhoto Festival 2013 – October 26 – November 16 O

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LagosPhoto Foundation presents the fourth edition of the annual LagosPhoto Festival in Lagos, Nigeria, October 26 - November 16, 2013, themed the Megacity and the Non-city.

Launched in 2010, LagosPhoto is the first and only international arts fes-tival of photography in Nigeria. In a month long program, events include exhibitions, workshops, artist presen-tations, discussions, and large scale outdoor prints displayed throughout the city with the aim of reclaiming public spaces and engaging the gen-eral public with multifaceted stories of Africa. LagosPhoto aims to estab-lish a community for contemporary

photography which will unite artists through images that encapsulate in-dividual experiences and identities from across all of Africa. LagosPhoto presents photography as it is embod-ied in the exploration of historical and contemporary issues, the sharing of cultural practices, and the promo-tion of social programs. LagosPhoto 2013 features over fifty photographers spanning fifteen countries.

This year’s theme, The Megacity and the Non-City, explores how the devel-opment of urban centers in Africa and the technical advance of photography have transformed our sense of place in a globally connected world. The twenty-first century has been char-

acterised by the rise of the megacity, with cities such as Lagos transitioning and adapting to vast changes taking place at an unprecedented speed. Ur-ban development, population explo-sion, environmental changes, socio-economic gaps, and the rising middle class in metropolitan centers in Africa redefine the structure of the city as it continuously evolves. At the same time, the digital revolution transforms the spatial perimeters of an individ-ual’s immediate environment, tied to the virtual connectivity between places through expanded technolo-gies. This concept of the “non-city” is defined by displacement, fantasy, and an unstable sense of identity, where individuals reference multifarious

cross-sections of cultures. The artists presented in The Megacity and the Non-City adopt photographic prac-tices and image-based strategies to negotiate the expanding urban land-scape of Africa today, with its contra-dictions, grey areas, and sites of dis-pute. By situating photography at the core of their practice, these artists in-vestigate the circulation of images in our society, their mass consumption and capacity to document personal and collective world-views.

LagosPhoto opens on October 26, 2013 at Ocean View at the Eko Ho-tel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. Satellite venues in arts and cultural spaces throughout the city extend to

Omenka Gallery, African Artists’ Foundation, Goethe-Institut, British Council, Lagos City Hall, A White Space, Makoko Floating School, and Stranger. Outdoor exhibitions in public spaces in Lagos include Falomo Roundabout, Muri Okunola Park, Oworonshoki/Alapere Median, Freedom Park (Ojota), and MKO Abiola Park. LagosPhoto is proud to welcome internationally acclaimed photographer Martin Parr as a special guest of honour, who will participate in public programming during the festival. LagosPhoto also introduces the World Premiere of internation-ally renowned photographer Samuel Fosso’s newest photographic series, The Emperor of Africa.

celebrating photography at its best: the Megacity and the Non-city

Breaking News: Highly contagious photography fever to reach Lagos!

Fourth edition of LagosPhoto Festival, the Megacity and the Non-city

Kelechi Amadi-Obi (Nigeria), from Captain Rugged

The LagosPhoto '13 Viewfinder

LagosPhoto

LagosPhoto Festival 2013 – October 26 – November 16 –

WORKSHOPS

FOtObook

26–30 Oct 2013 / Conference Center, Hotel & Suites, Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

LagosPhoto 2013 inaugurates the FotoBook project, an international ex-change programme between photog-raphers, graphic designers and book designers focusing on book design, desktop publishing and the book mak-ing process. Internationally acclaimed photography book designer Teun van der Heijden will lead a master work-shop for the the FotoBook project, along with workshop facilitators Kadir van Louhizen, Andrea Stultiens, and Claudia Hinterseer.

Applicants: Book designers, Graphic designers and Photographers with semi-complete/complete bodies of work should apply. There are 20 spac-es available.

Finding Your voice as a Photographer

29 Oct 2013, 13–16h / Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokun-bo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

In this workshop, students will bring their portfolio and/or long term proj-ects and will discuss their projects and get feedback from the facilitator and other participants. Claudia Hinterseer is the former managing director and co–owner of NOOR images, a photog-raphy collective and foundation based in Amsterdam. Prior to founding NOOR, Hinterseer worked at World Press Photo. Interested participants should have an intermediate to advanced photographic background and have a small portfolio of work (approx. 10–25 images) prepared to show.

Future cities Laboratory: Mapping Workshop

29 Oct 2013, 12–15h / Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokun-bo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

Future Cities Laboratory, a Ph.D re-search project on comparative megaci-ties from the Swiss Federal University, ETH Zurich, will present their research on Lagos during the festival through an interactive mapping workshop. This series of workshops aims to access expert local knowledge to create a bet-ter understanding of the urbanization of Lagos. The workshops take place around large maps of Lagos in its city, state and regional contexts, with par-ticipants discussing and identifying the dynamic, rather than static, aspects of the city. What results is preliminary, vital information for understanding the urbanization of Lagos without us-

ing predefined, usually ‘Western’ con-cepts. This workshop will be limited to a maximum of four participants, and is open to photographers, visual artists, architects, and urban planners.

Negotiating Your Photography Presence Online

30 Oct 2013, 14–18h /Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokun-bo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

This workshop will cover the fundamen-tal issues for photographers represent-ing their work online, including how to build an online portfolio, avenues for marketing and promotion, safeguard-ing image copyrights, and sustaining a viable photography presence on the In-ternet. A participating photographer in this year’s edition of LagosPhoto, Sow works as a free–lance photographer in Senegal.

Photojournalism and Documen-tary Photography

01 Nov 2013, 10–14h / Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokun-bo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

Internationally acclaimed photojour-nalist Kadir van Lohuizen will speak about his work and the world of con-temporary photojournalism, along with an informal portfolio review and group critique. Kadir van Lohuizen has cov-ered conflicts in Africa and elsewhere, but is probably best known for his long–term projects on the seven riv-ers of the world, the diamond industry and migration in the Americas. Inter-ested participants should have an in-termediate to advanced photographic background and have a small portfolio of photojournalistic work prepared to show.

Fundamentals of Photography

02 Nov 2013, 10–12h / Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokun-bo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

This workshop aims at showcasing the fundamentals of photography. Topics considered are manual camera set-tings, including basic camera opera-tions such as shutter speed, aperture, and ISO control. Special attention will be made to conventional rules of composition and framing, and how to translate these fundamental skills to work in tandem with the photog-rapher’s personal vision. Marc C. is a professional photographer and a par-ticipating artist in LagosPhoto 2013.

Intermediate Digital Photogra-phy Post–Production

02 Nov 2013, 13–15h / Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokunbo

Ademola Street, Victoria Island, LagosThis workshop, taught by photographer Nick Hagen, will cover the basics of refining RAW images to finesse them into finished works. We will go over the concepts of fulling toned and prop-erly exposed images, retouching, basic color theory, and file format outputs. This workshop is for photography en-thusiasts or professionals looking to take their photography to the next level by learning more of the technical the-ory involved. Beginner to intermediate photography skills, a laptop with Ado-be Photoshop and a library of images (preferably in the RAW format) will be necessary to participate in class.

Negotiating Documentary and Fiction in Photography

04–06 Nov 2013, 9–12h / Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokun-bo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

This workshop will invite participants to take part in the production of a new photographic series by internationally renowned photographer Cristina de Middel, from the initial idea to final shooting. The workshop will deal with location finding, costume making, model casting, as well as the sequenc-ing of the series. Participants will ex-plore the distance there is between a text or an idea to a final result, trans-lating the concept into real images that tell the story, working more like film makers who engage with science fiction rather than strict photojournal-ism. Cristina de Middel's series The Af-ronauts is one of the key projects pre-sented in LagosPhoto Festival 2013.

Future cities Laboratory: Mapping Workshop

06 Nov 2013, 1215h / Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokun-bo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

Future Cities Laboratory, a Ph.D re-search project on comparative mega-cities from the Swiss Federal Univer-sity, ETH Zurich, will present their research on Lagos during the festi-val through an interactive mapping workshop. This workshop is limited to a maximum of four participants.

PORtFOLIO RevIeWS

Photographer's Portfolio Meet-ing: Public Presentation

28 Oct 2013, 15–17h / Ocean View, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokunbo Ade-mola Street, Victoria Island

In this public presentation, organisers and facilitators of the Photographers' Portfolio Meeting will introduce their ongoing programme taking place dur-ing LagosPhoto 2013.

The Photographers’ Portfolio Meet-ing, initiated by Simon Njami and the Goethe–Institut South Africa, is held once a year in dif ferent cit-ies on the continent, where a select group of photographers discuss their work leading curators and ar t professionals. The Photographer’s Portfolio Meeting in 2013 will be held in Lagos in partnership with LagosPhoto. Facilitators include Si-mon Njami, Chris Dercon, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Frédérique Chapuis, and Katrin Peters–Klaphake, among oth-ers.

Portfolio Review with Jerome Delay and Mathilde Boussion

Oct 30, 2013, 10–12h / Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokun-bo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

This workshop will offer a portfolio re-view for photographers to get critical advice and feedback on their previous bodies of work. Jerome Delay is the Af-rica Chief Photographer of the Associ-ated Press and a participating photog-rapher in LagosPhoto 2013. Mathilde Boussion is an editor at 6 Mois, a publication that examines the relation-ship between journalism and photog-raphy.

Portfolio Review with Martin Parr

31 Oct 12–16h / British Council Nige-ria, 20 Thompson Avenue, Ikoyi

Martin Parr is an internationally re-nowned British documentary photogra-pher, photojournalist and photo–book collector. He is known for his photo-graphic projects that take a critical look at aspects of modern life, in par-ticular provincial and suburban life in England. As a special guest of honour for LagosPhoto 2013, Parr will offer a portfolio review to a select group of photographers, Participation is limited and pending application.

cONveRSAtIONS

The Conversations series provides a platform for informal artist presenta-tions of participating artists' projects, as well as discussion and interaction with emerging Nigerian artists.

the Megacity and the Non–city

27 October 2013, 10– 12h / Ocean View, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokunbo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

This panel discussion will explore this year’s theme of LagosPhoto, The Mega-city and the Non–City, which explores how the development of urban centers in Africa and the technical advance of photography have transformed our sense of place in a globally connected world. Participating photographers will present two sides of photography, the documentary tradition and expanded artistic strategies, and two sides of the city, including urban development and technological changes. Participat-ing panelists include Jerome Delay, Uche Okpa–Iroha, Joe Penney, Hans Wilschut, Cristina de Middel, Ayana V. Jackson, Lindsay Sawyer, and THANK-STHANKSAFRICA.

Ayana v Jackson


Ayana V. Jackson is an American pho-tographer who explores the complex dynamics of photographic represen-tation in gender and race. Her series Poverty Pornography is exhibited in LagosPhoto 2013.

contemporary Art Spaces in Lagos


This panel discussion will bring to-gether organisations in Lagos that are championing contemporary art and transforming the cultural landscape in Nigeria. Each organisation will present about their past projects and overall aims and objectives, followed by a group discussion about the state of

For detailed information please visit www.lagosphotofestival.com All there is to know

LagosPhoto Festival 13 Participating Artists Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou (Be-nin), Akintunde Akinleye (Nigeria), Kelechi Amadi-Obi (Nigeria), Jelili Atiku (Nige-ria), Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin (South Africa/UK), Kudzanai Chiurai (Zimbabwe), Marc C. (USA), Jerome Delay (France), Samuel Fosso (Cameroon), Glenna Gordon (USA), Jane Hahn (USA), Jan Hoek (The Netherlands), Ayana V. Jackson (USA), Samuel James (USA), Cyrus Kabiru (Kenya), Namsa Leuba (Swit-zerland), Nicola Lo Calzo (Italy), Obinna Makata (Nigeria), Cristina de Middel (Spain), Anthony Monday (Nigeria), Hauwa Mukan (Nigeria), Obi Nwokedi (Ni-geria/UK), Lakin Ogunbanwo (Nigeria), Karl Ohiri and Sayad Hasan (UK), Uche Okpa-Iroha (Nigeria), Adeola Olagunju (Nigeria), Joe Penney (USA), Ahmet Polat and Erik Vroons (Turkey/The Netherlands), Lindsay Sawyer (UK), Mouhamadou Sow (Senegal), Andrea Stultiens (The Netherlands), Afose Sulayman (Nigeria), thanksthanksafrica (Nigeria/Canada), Charles Placide-Tossou (Benin), Patrick Willocq (France), Hans Wilschut (The Netherlands).

– LagosPhoto Festival 2013 – October 26 – November 16

contemporary art in Nigeria today. Par-ticipating organisations include Center for Contemporary Art, Art Twenty One, The Nnele Institute – African Centre of Photography, Photogarage, VAN La-gos, Art House, Silent Majority Project, Omenka Gallery, Goethe–Institut Nige-ria, A White Space, and African Artists’ Foundation.

cristina de Middel

31 Oct, 2013, 10–12h / Ocean View, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokunbo Ade-mola Street

Cristina de Middel is a documentary photographer and artist now based in London. Her work asks the audience to question the language and the ve-racity of photography as a document, and plays with reconstructions or ar-chetypes that blur the border between reality and fiction.

FILM ScReeNINgS

How to Make a Book with Steidl

30 Oct, 2013, 16–18h / Conference Center, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokun-bo Ademola Street, Victoria Island

In this age of digital media, Gerhard Steidl stands as one of the few remain-ing publishers to maintain an unwav-ering commitment to the quality and craftsmanship of the printed book. For more than forty years, Steidl has per-sonally supervised the publishing and printing of some of the most significant books on fashion, art, and photogra-phy. In How to Make a Book with Steidl, filmmakers Gereon Wetzel and Joerg Adolph observe Steidl as he travels the world to meet and collaborate with such renowned photographers as Joel Sternfeld, Jeff Wall, and Ed Ruscha, working tirelessly to present their work in beautifully created books.

Organised in association with Goethe–Institut Nigeria

the Many Faces of Samuel Fosso and Artist talk

28 Oct, 2013, 18–21h / Ocean View, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokunbo Ade-mola Street, Victoria Island

This documentary screening of Samuel Fosso will take place in the presence of the world renowned art-ist himself. In the film, BBC travels to Fosso’s photography studio in Bangui, Central African Republic and visits his family village of Ebunwana Edda in Nigeria, to explore Fosso's feelings about his childhood during the Biafran War. The documentary also highlights Fosso as he meets key figures of the New York art scene. Following the screening, viewers will

be able to participate in a discussion with Samuel Fosso and his galler-ist Jean Marc Patras, among other guests.

tHANKStHANKSAFRIcA

31 Oct, 2013, 13–15h / Ocean View, Eko Hotel & Suites, Adetokunbo Ade-mola Street

THANKSTHANKSAFRICA was created as an expanded artistic practice. TTA's approach to photography is through the found image, often found using social media, which is decontextual-ization and/or reclaimed as the de-sired object. The idea is to create new images from the leftover dross of the

world and find new ways to reconsider the problem as it relates to the African question. This workshop takes partici-pant through the processes for the in-stallation Man Versus Man and makes understandable how, in the context of the photographic image or text, the art object may be extracted from the al-ready available.

SAteLLIte exHIBItIONS

LagosPhoto Summer School

Oct 26 – Nov 4, 2013 / Opening Recep-tion: November 1, 2013, 16h / A White Space, 58 Raymond Njoku Street, Ikoyi, Lagos

LagosPhoto Summer School, in part-nership with the Neue Schule für Foto-grafie in Berlin, Germany, offers an international exchange with workshops in Berlin and Lagos culminating in an exhibition during the LagosPhoto festi-val and forthcoming book publication. Participating photographers include Adeola Olagunju, Jenevieve Aken, Aderemi Adegbite, Ben Chislett, and Zorana Musikic.

Incursions: Signing the Blues in Lagos

Oct 27–Nov 23, 2013 / Opening Re-ception: Oct 26, 2013, 17h / Lagos City Hall, Lagos Island, Lagos.

The Master Class exhibition will fea-ture works produced during a pho-tography workshop facilitated by Berlin-based Nigerian photographer and curator Akinbode Akinbiyi in as-sociation with Goethe-Institut Nigeria. Featuring works by Akinbiyi alongside Aderemi Adegbite, TY Bello, Uche Okpa-Iroha, Adeola Olagunju, Dapo Ogunsanya, and Emmanuel Osodi, the images on display during this exhibi-tion will focus on people, places and things around and about the city of Lagos

Organised by the Goethe-Institut

Inside Out: Patrick Willocq, Nicola Lo calzo, Ahmet Polat and erik vroons

Oct 29–Nov 7, 2013 / Opening Recep-tion: Oct 30, 2013, 18h, Omenka Gallery

Omenka Gallery will host a dedicated exhibition of three participating Lagos-Photo projects, from photographers Patrick Willocq, Nicola Lo Calzo, and Ahmet Polat and Erik Vroons. Each project looks at how our sense of iden-tity and place are constructed both within a regional context and a more global conversation.

ZAM MagazineAnton corbijn: Images of Fela Kuti

Oct 30 – Nov 16, 2013 / Opening Reception: Nov 1, 2013, 18h / Afri-can Artists’ Foundation, 54 Raymond Njoku Street, Ikoyi, Lagos

African Artists’ Foundation will host two projects during LagosPhoto 2013: a series ZAM Magazine covers, featur-ing renowned African and international artists, and a series by Anton Corbijn capturing Fela Kuti and his touring band in the 1980s in Paris. African Art-ists’ Foundation will also host a book signing with internationally acclaimed photographer Martin Parr during its annual Gallery Hop on November 1, 2013.

tNI.:AcP WorkshopAfose Sulayman and Anthony Monday

October 30–November 16, 2013 Open-ing Reception: Nov 8, 2013, 18h Kudzanai Chiurai, Stranger Lagos, 3 Hakee, Dick-son, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos

Stranger Lagos will present three par-ticipating projects in LagosPhoto 2013. TNI.ACP, an arts center in Lagos with a focus on photography and lens based media, showcases its recent workshop with founder and photographer Uche Okpa-Iroha in Lagos. Kudzanai Chuirai, a leading artist from Zimbabwe that is now based in South Africa, will install a video from his recent series State of the Nation. Afose Sulayman and Anthony Monday, two emerging Nigerian photographers, will exhibit their recent projects in Lagos.

Witness exhibition

Oct 30 – Nov 18, 2013 / Goethe-Institut Lagos, Lagos City Hall, Lagos Island, Lagos

Goethe-Institut South Africa will bring its traveling exhibition, Witness, to be shown alongside the festival. Wit-ness presents the work produced in a photography workshop led by Sammy Bolaji. Participating artists include Sammy Bolaji, Calvin Dondo, Sabelo Mlangeni, Abraham Oghobase, Mo-nique Pelser, and Michael Tsegaye.

Voyages/Retour

Opening Reception: Nov 9, 2013, 15hClosing Ceremony: Dec 1, 2013 / Fed-eral Government Printing Press, Broad Street, Lagos Island, Lagos

Voyages/Retour is the Museum Folk-wang’s first photography exhibition in Africa. It focuses on the interactions and changes in perspectives between Africa and Europe as occurred during the 1920s through decolonization to the indepen-dence as portrayed through photogra-phy.The exhibition will feature images by Nigerian photographer J.D. Ojeikhere along with photographs from Folkwang’s collection by Rolf Gillhausen, Germaine Krull, Robert Lebeck, Malick Sidibé and Wolfgang Weber.It will also include images from the photography archives of the Fed-eral Ministry of Information, Nigeria.

Organised by the Goethe-Institut

www.lagosphotofestival.com

For detailed information please visit www.lagosphotofestival.com

All there is to know

SPecIAL PROJectS

World Press Photo: World Press Photo, the preeminent international photogra-phy competition that features the best of photojournalism worldwide, will bring its annual exhibition to Lagos to be showcased alongside the festival. The World Press Photo exhibition reaches an audience of over two million people annually and travels to over 45 countries each year. LagosPhoto has signed a three year contract with the World Press Photo Exhibition, expanding the conceptual scope of LagosPhoto to include the global discourse of photojournalism and current events worldwide.

POPCAP ’13: POPCAP, the international photography competition for contempo-rary African photography, has partnered with LagosPhoto to present its exhibition in Lagos during the festival. This year’s winners --- Anhua Collective, Dillon Marsh, Cristina de Middel, Alexia Webster, and Graeme Williams--- executed photograph-ic projects taken on the African continent or that deal with the African diaspora. The POPCAP ’13 exhibition was presented at Münsterplatz in Basel, Switzerland and at the PhotoIreland Festival earlier this year.

FOTObook: This year’s edition of LagosPhoto inaugurates the FOTObook project, an international exchange program between art book designers and emerging Ni-gerian artists that allows for an intensive study into the specialised domain of art book design and publication. FOTObook is supported by the Mondriaan Fund.

LagosPhoto Summer School: LagosPhoto Summer School, in partnership with the Neue Schule für Fotografie in Berlin, Germany, offers an international exchange with workshops in Berlin and Lagos culminating in an exhibition during the Lagos-Photo festival and forthcoming book publication. The LagosPhoto Summer School is organised by Eva Maria Ocherbauer in association with LagosPhoto.

Photographer’s Portfolio Meeting: The Photographers’ Portfolio Meeting, initi-ated by Simon Njami and the Goethe-Institut South Africa, are held once a year in different cities on the continent, where a select group of photographers discuss their work leading curators and art professionals. The Photographer’s Portfolio Meeting in 2013 will be held in Lagos in partnership with LagosPhoto.

Etisalat Photography Competition: The Etisalat Photography Competition aims to develop and nurture photographic talent in Nigeria by providing a platform for emerging Nigerian photographers to have their work exhibited to a wide audience and win monetary prizes. The Etisalat Photography Competition utilises multiple web-based platforms and social media outlets making it easier for the public to participate. Three winners will be announced during the Grand Opening of Lagos-Photo.

LagosPhoto Mobile App: LagosPhoto has launched the LagosPhoto Mobile App, available on Android devices, where visitors can find information about the exhibi-tions, artists, and satellite projects. The LagosPhoto Mobile App is supported by Etisalat Nigeria.

Art Base Africa: Art Base Africa, a new online platform for contemporary Afri-can art, launches during LagosPhoto 2013 with a special dedicated issue of the festival. Art Base Africa includes a database of contemporary African artists, an online journal that is published in quarterly thematic issues, and an online radio broadcast. Art Base Africa is supported by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development.


Ocean View14/16 Adetokunbo Ademola Street Victoria Island

Outdoor spaces by CDI Workshop

AAF Gallery A White Space

Goethe Institut Omenka Gallery

Stranger

British Council City Hall

Sponsors

Leonce Raphael AgbodjelouAkintunde AkinleyeKelechi Amadi-Obi & Hauwa R. MukanJelili AtikuAdam Broomberg & Oliver ChanarinKudzanai ChiuraiMarc CJerome DelaySamuel FossoGlenna GordonJane HahnJan HoekAyana V. JacksonSamuel JamesCyrus KabiruNamsa LeubaNicola Lo CalzoObinna MakataCristina de MiddelAnthony MondayHauwa MukanObi NwokediLakin OgunbanwoKarl Ohiri & Sayed HasanUche Okpa-IrohaAdeola OlagunjuJoe PenneyAhmet Polat & Erik VroonsLindsay SawyerMouhamadou SowAndrea StultiensAfose SulaymanTHANKSTHANKSAFRICACharles Placide-TossouPatrick WillocqHans Wilschut

Witness ExhibitionWorld Press Photo ExhibitionPOPCAP ‘13Photographer’s Portfolio Meeting (Goethe Institut South Africa)FotoBookTNI.CP Workshop Exhibition with Uche Okpa-Iroha Master Class Exhibition with Akinbode AkinbiyiLagosPhoto Summer School ExhibitionZAM Magazine Exhibition

26 Oct - 16 NovThe Megacity and the Non-City

www.lagosphotofestival.com

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LagosPhoto 2013

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Adam Broomberg and Oliver chanarin (South Africa/UK)

The title of Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin’s To Photograph the Details of a Dark Horse in Low Light was originally the coded

phrase used by Kodak to describe the capabilities of a new film stock developed in the early 80‘s to ad-dress the inability of their earlier films to accurately render dark skin. The project presents a series of billboards that depict glamorous

Caucasian women in high-contrast dress posed in front of neutral grey backgrounds accompanied by the word ‚Normal‘. Collectively known as “Shirleys,” the portraits are culled from an archive of Kodak “norm reference cards,” historically used to calibrate skin tone in a pho-tograph.

French director Jean-Luc Godard made Kodak’s apparent predilection for white skin famous by refusing to use Kodak film on assignment in Mozambique in 1975. Kodak film, he insisted, was “racist.” As a re-sponse to complaints that their film could not properly render darker tones, Kodak chemists developed Gold Max: the first popular con-sumer film to address this problem, and which was initially described by Kodak as able “to photograph the details of a dark horse in low light.”

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin are artists living and working in London. Together they

Keep your eyes open!

Ayana v. Jackson (USA)

Poverty Pornography: At its root is about the power of photography. Its motifs, methods, interests, and ul-timately its effect on the collective memory. While I have narrowed in on particular moments in photo-graphic history and certain genres of the medium, this is not a conver-sation aimed at supporting binaries between the West and non-West, Co-lonial power and formerly colonized, Black and White, Rich and Poor, but rather to locate what I believe to be photography’s role in supporting, if not sustaining those binaries and the possibility that society as a whole is as much a beneficiary as a victim of photography’s might. In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag writes; “The frankest representations of war and of disaster-injured bodies are of those who seem most foreign therefore least likely to be known. With subjects closer to home the photographer is expected to be more discreet… he more remote or exotic, the more likely we are to have full frontal views of the dead and dy-ing.” She goes on to say that “It seems that the appetite for pictures showing bodies in pain is as keen, almost, as

the desire for ones that show bodies naked …” It is here that the series Poverty Pornography finds its genesis.

In contemplating this notion, the se-ries interrogates photographic repre-sentation of non-European bodies dat-ing from the turn of the 20th century through to the present day. I restage existing images as nudes in order to explore the emotional tension one feels when observing these polemic and often violent photographs. My in-tention is that the viewer is simultane-ously drawn to and yet repulsed by the originals in a similar way they may be attracted yet potentially shamed by the naked female form. This work combines the two in order to question the seductive language of photogra-phy and the ideas it can communicate and perpetuate. The term poverty pornography (com-monly used in the NGO domain) refers to the prevalence of images of suffering in the developing world. These photo-graphs are generally extremely graphic, often dehumanizing and tend to project an image of endless despair. They evoke sympathy (and hence activism), but at the same time activate modes of repre-sentation that maintain what I believe to be fictitious cultural binaries.

Photographer in Review

Adeola Olagunju Nigeria

Adeola Olagunju explores per-formative aspects of photography by documenting herself in self-portraits that look at the relation-ship between the individual and the urban environment in Nigeria. Olagunju typically chooses decay-ing industrial landscapes and dis-regarded locations for her perfor-mative images. In Resurgence: A Manifesto, Olagunju uses the met-

have had numerous international exhibitions including The Museum of Modern Art, Tate Galleries, The Gwagnju Biennale, the Stedelijk Museum, the International Center of Photography, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, The Photogra-

Stereotypes vs. Performance

"French director Jean-Luc Godard made Ko-dak’s apparent predi-lection for white skin famous by refusing to use Kodak film on as-signment in Mozambique in 1975.Kodak film, he insisted, was “racist.”

aphor of an abandonded train sta-tion, and her own actions within it, to reflect on what she describes as the sociopolitical decadence in Nigeria today.Adeola Olagunju won First Place at the Etisalat Photography Competition in 2012 and recently completed a summer workshop at the Neue Schule in Berlin. Olagunju lives and works in Lagos.

phers Gallery and Mathaf Arab Mu-seum of Modern Art. Broomberg and Chanarin are Visiting Fellows at the University of the Arts Lon-don. Most recently, they have been awarded the Deutsche Börse Pho-tography Prize 2013.


cristina de Middel (Spain)

In 1964, still living the dream of their recently gained independence, Zambia started a space program that would put the first African on the moon, in an attempt to catch up with the USA and the Soviet Union in the space race. Only a few opti-mists supported the project by Ed-ward Makuka, the school teacher in charge of presenting the ambitious program and sourcing its neces-sary funding. But the financial aid never came, as the United Nations declined their support and one of the astronauts, a 16 year old girl, got pregnant and had to quit.

Thus the heroic initiative morphed into an exotic episode in African history, surrounded by wars, vio-lence, droughts and hunger.

As a photojournalist I have always been attracted to eccentric lines of story-telling, and aim to avoid tell-ing the same old stories in the same old ways. With the series The Af-ronauts, I re- spect the basis of the truth but allow myself to break the rules of veracity by trying to push the audience to analyse the pat-terns of the stories we consume as real. The Afronauts is based upon the documentation of an impossible dream that lives only in pictures.

Seeing things through rose-colored glasses

glenna gordon (USA)

Weddings in Nigeria are not private affairs - they are public displays. These occasions celebrate a union, demonstrate family belonging, and affirm Nigeria’s style and swagger.A wedding with thousands of guests is one way to visualize the scale of Ni-geria's economy. This oil-producing nation is richer than most people out-side of Nigeria could ever imagine. And on wedding day, the poor dress

up like the inverse isn’t also true.These photos are about what money can and can’t buy, as well as the real costs visible in the quiet moments amidst frenzied ceremony.

Glenna Gordon is a documentary photographer who works often in West Africa and elsewhere on long-term photo projects, assignments for newspapers and magazines, and commissions for NGOs and other or-ganizations.

She is also a lecturer at the New School in the Graduate Program for International Affairs, an art editor at the online magazine Guernica, and she trains photographers and journalists in Africa. Her work has received accolades from the Interna-tional Photography Awards, Magenta Foundation, Photo District News and Critical Mass, and has been shown in galleries and exhibitions in New York, Washington DC, Lagos, Cape Town, Istanbul, among others.

First African Nation to the Moon! exclusive Story!

New spaces to explore.

tHANKStHANKSAFRIcA (Canada)

Man Versus Man is a pictorial demon-stration that recontextualises random found images to examine the human condition.

THANKSTHANKSAFRICA was created as an expanded artistic prac-tice. TTA's approach to Photography is through the found image, often found using social media, which is decontextualization and/or reclaimed as the desired object. The idea is to create new images from the leftover dross of the world and find new ways to reconsider the problem as it relates to the African question.

Founded in 2010 as both entity and collective, THANKSTHANKSAF-RICA (TTA) addresses aesthetic, endemic, social and political issues concerning africa and the human condition, in relation to all of her rela-tives: asia, europe, s/america, usa...in connection to now. TTA questions the location of where difference lies or who indeed names another 'the other'. Using the platform of theatrical even comical pedagogy carried out by a group of Africans, all of whom are fictitious, we declare our concept of 'we are each other's another' as a sure death to the 'otherness' assigned to fixed groups. Our past 'manifestos'

and upcoming 'tutorials' are exercises in well-researched pedagogic jokingness put out by TTA on the grave earthly matters of human relations. Without forfeiting the critical and at the same time declaring a human's right to be ridiculous, we poop on the notion, the prevalent notion of 'races' and its insinu-ations and its contempt and its sham status; we poop too on the correspond-ing sham of its so-called victims to play the object; we reject the old bogeying currently in practice as same old same old. We move the question of difference from its 'racial' locale and declare it to be individual, widespread and shared all over. To us, difference exists on an individual level, in that otherness of the individual's attempt to exist, understand, and live in his or her world.


Jane Hahn (USA)

Every year, the Lagos Polo Club holds it annual tournament, bring-ing together most of the private as well as government funded teams from around the country. Polo, known as the "game of kings", is mainly reserved for the Nigeria’s elite, but few pay attention to those who work behind the scenes; the groomers who care for the horses, train them, as well as prepare play-ers and horses for each match. Many of the groomers living in Lagos reside on the grounds of the polo club with their families, their children helping along side them, some learning to become groomers

themselves. They work rigorously throughout the tournament, in the hot March air, meters away from the country’s wealthiest who cheer on from VIP areas flowing with Veuve Clicquot. Polo in Nigeria is having a renaissance as many luxury brands are looking to add their sponsorship to the teams and clubs. Many own-ers import horses as well as players

from abroad, most notably from Ar-gentina. But those who work behind the scenes do so making on average less than $90/month. Some endure the hard work for the pay while most do it for the love of the horse.

New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times Maga-zine, Washington Post Magazine, Stern, Der Spiegel, Geo Internation-al, and International Herald Tribune among others.

Hans Wilschut (The Netherlands)

Leading Dutch photographer Hans Wilschut’s photographic se-ries reflect on the contradictions of future urban metropolises in developing countries. Wilschut’s photographs are portraits of an urban landscape, portraying a vast city that converges with different architectures and building scales.

His photographic projects fo-cus on the urban city center, ex-ecuted in diverse developing cit-ies around the globe that are at the cusp of explosion. In many ways, he portrays the archetypal concrete jungle, devoid of hu-man presence and portraying an aura of sterility that foreshadows a dystopian future. Yet, on closer inspection, which is inherent in his choice of a large format cam-era and mural scale prints, the viewer begins to find suggestions of human habitation. As much as the human subject is left out of Wilschut’s photographs, its es-sence remains. It is in the middle space, between expanding devel-opment and individual experi-ence, that his images speak to the spirit of the city.

cities vs. Non-citiesIt is all a matter of perspective.

If wishes were horses, beggers would ride.

Jane Hahn is an American free-lance photographer based in Dakar, Senegal. With a background in art history, Hahn pursued photography professionally in 2007 when she based herself in West Africa. Her

work ranges from news coverage to long term documentary projects focusing on issues from post con-flict environments to everyday life across the continent. Her work has appeared in Time Magazine, The

"Many owners import horses as well as players from abroad, most notably from Ar-gentina."


Karl Ohiri (Nigeria/UK)

Karl Ohiri’s visual arts practice started in 2007 with the visual documentation of his ancestral homeland of Nigeria. His series

Kelechi Amadi-Obi (Nigeria)

This series juxtaposes the super-hero fantasy within the contem-porary African environment. It chronicles musician Keziah Jones' superhero alter ego "Cap-tain Rugged" in the backdrop of the bustling Lagos City streets. On a deeper level, it speaks

to the situation of our nation. Maybe we need a superhero to save us from all the corruption and suffering we see. Maybe we need to employ a fantastical ap-proach to right the many wrongs within our society. A superhero to protect the weak from the bul-lies - maybe we need to become our own superheros to save our-selves.

Late reunion.

the next best photograph is around the corner.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's captain Rugged!

My Granddad’s Car is a collab-orative project with artist Sayed Hasan, where each traveled thou-sands of miles to Nigeria and Pak-istan in an attempt to bring their grandfathers’ cars to the UK. They

wished to park them side-by-side in their country of birth. Through documenting his journey and tak-ing on performative roles for the camera, the project explores their histories, cultural heritage, and

identities as a product of migra-tion, determined to overcome boundaries in order to reconcile their ancestral pasts with their present lives. Since completing his Masters at Goldsmiths University

in 2008, Ohiri’s artwork has been a mixture of conceptually driven and often documentary based projects that consist of original works and the recontextualisation of pre-existing artefacts.

"Maybe we need a superhero to save us from all the cor-ruption and suffering we see."

LagosPhoto

Samuel Fosso (Cameroon)

Samuel Fosso is a Cameroonian photographer best known for his ongoing series of self-portraits taken with various guises and constructed identities. Fosso's work came to international prominence in the early 1990's for his bodies of performative work that started in the 1970s, and he is now regarded as a seminal artist in the discourse of African photography. In the African Spirits series, Fosso re-interprets photographic icons of great leaders from the African Independencies, Civil Rights movement, and black cultural monuments. He assumes various guises in the photographs, in-cluding Mandela, Senghor, Aimé Césaire, Miles Davis, Martin Lu-ther King, Seydou Keita, Angela

Davis, N’Krumah, Lumumba, Tommie Smith, Haïlé Sélassié, Malcolm X, and Muhammad Ali.

LagosPhoto also introduces the World Premiere of Samuel Fos-so’s newest photographic series, The Emperor of Africa.

The Emperor of Africa explores the relationship between Africa and China by recontextualizing icons of Mao Zedong, with Fosso playing the part of the controver-sial Chinese leader.

Speaking about his work, Fosso states: “As in all my works, I am both character and director. I don’t put myself in the photo-graphs: my work is based on spe-cific situations and people I am familiar with, things I desire, re-work in my imagination and af-

terward, I interpret. I borrow an identity. In order top succeed I immerse myself in the necessary physical and mental state. It’s a way of freeing me from myself. A solitary path. I am a solitary man.”

Samuel Fosso was born in 1962 in Cameroon. His work has been exhibited in major exhibitions in France, India, Argentina, Mali, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, USA, South Africa, Australia, Cuba, Serbia, Brazil, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Syria, Swe-den, Finland, and Senegal. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Prince Claus Fund Award, Dak’Art First Prize for Photography , and Af-rique en Création. Fosso lives and works in Bangui, Central African Republic.

World Premier of The Emperor of AfricaAbout rulers, emperors, supressors, dictators and role models


First to be seen at LagosPhoto FestivalBeing Samuel Fosso



Lakin Ogunbanwo (Nigeria)

Human Condition examines the confluence of relationships and the cityscape they take place in. Set against the backdrop of the struc-tures that serve to unite these two halves, bridges become visual meta-phors for communication, union and separation in this highly condensed and ambiguous view of the city of Lagos.

Keep your eyes open!Stereotypes vs. Performance

Mouhamadou Sow (Senegal)

Mouhamadou Sow’s photographic projects focus on reshaping West-ern misrepresentations of people and places on the African continent. Sow’s work captures the contrast-ing beauty of both the rural and ur-ban metropolis environments in his home country, Senegal. In his series

Télé bi, Sow documents street life in Dakar, yet uses the simple gesture of framing his scenes through the plastic border of a television screen. Sow negates the documentary tradi-tion by suggesting that these images are destined for media subversion, and he references the photographic act and the photographer’s presence in the process of creating such ste-

emerging talent Reviewed

reoytpical representations of Africa. Sow works as a free-lance photog-rapher in Senegal. He has served as Technology Coordinator for the annual think tank BarCamp Gorée and placed second at NetAfrika Challenge 2010, held in Bamako, Mali.

cyrus Kabiru (Kenya)

Cyrus Kabiru is best known for re-fashioning waste and recycled mate-rials into various forms as a humor-ous critique of contemporary living within Kenya. In his ongoing project, C-Stunners, Kabiru creates and wears artistic bifocals using metal scraps and used objects. Kabiru then has himelf photographed as he poses with

the makeshift sunglasses. The work sits between fashion, design, perfor-mance, and photography in a com-ment on selfrepresentation through commodity objects. According to Kabiru, the projects captures the sen-sibility and attitude of the youth gen-eration in Nairobi, where they portray culture bling, the ingenuity and re-sourcefulness of the people, and the transformability of the everyday.

vistit us at www.lagosphotofestival.com

piclet.org prize for

contemporary african

photography

call opens december 2013

14


Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou (Benin)

Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou is a documentary and conceptual pho-tographer based in Porto Novo, Republic of Benin. His work ex-plores the social dynamics of his hometown, including its archi-tecture, citizens, history, cultural traditions, and ongoing change. In the Musclemen series, Ag-bodjelou creates studio portraits of bodybuilders, accentuated by Ankara-patterned backdrops and props that reference a strong tradi-tion of West African photographic portraiture. In the Egungun series, Agbodjelou contrasts the grand colour of masquerade costumes with the textured surfaces of clay huts.

Trained by his father, renowned photographer Joseph Moise Ag-bodjelou, Leonce Raphael Ag-bodjelou continues the family buisness in his father’s portrait studio in Porto Novo today. Ag-bodjelou is the founder and direc-tor of the first photography school in Benin, and he serves as presi-dent of the Photographer’s Asso-ciation of Porto Novo.

Patrick Willocq (France)

A testimony of everyday Batwa Pyg-mies and Bantu life in the province of Equateur, Democratic Republic of Congo. Together with the villag-ers, themselves actors committed to contributing to our project, I depict through a series of images various themes, such as education, religion, the relationship between men and women, the role of the forest and globalization. My long term immer-sion in these villages and the result-ing complicity with villagers is at the root of these “bush theatres” that are artistically driven but yet reflect fun-damental social problems and devel-opment needs.

I grew up in this country that I love. Parallel to my photographic work, I have been offering for the last 2 years community-based and fair-trade ad-venture tours to meet at the discov-ery of these villagers. I have always been struck by the beauty, simplicity and dignity of daily life, despite all the hardship they face.

I aim to go beyond images conveyed by Western media and show a Congo that we are not used to see. I spe-cifically wanted to witness the peace that prevails in the West, a different reality than the Eastern Congo.

Antiquity vs. Modernity

the world is a stage.

Photographer in Review


Nicola Lo calzo (Italy)

Nicola Lo Calzo is an Italian pho-tographer born in Torino in 1979. After training in architecture, he started his artistic endeavour in 2001. His photography is that of a documentary proposal, un-dertaken halfway between jour-nalism and art, while focusing on minority and identity issues. He contributes with the press on a regular basis (Newsweek, The Independent, Courrier In-ternational, Le Monde, Libéra-tion, Geo, Eyemazing, Photo, L’Espresso, Repubblica, Corriere della Sera, La Stampa,…), and is also commissioned by institu-tional or commercial enterprises (Unesco, SFR foundation, Ali-nari Foundation…). Nicola Lo Calzo's work has been exhibited in France and in other countries, and most notably at Rencontres d’Arles, and at the Alinari Na-tional Museum for Photography, in Italy. His photographs are in private collections and museums, such as the Alinari Archives, the National Library of France and the Pinacoteca civica di Monza. Nicola Lo Calzo lives and works in Paris.

Obi Nwokedi (Nigeria)

The idea for this came about shortly after I saw Italian Vogue’s black Barbie fashion shoot. I real-ized it would be great to do some-thing with the dolls, which would be a bit more related to me and my work. I decided to use the Yoruba traditional wedding for the project simply because as at that time I had never photographed any other type of traditional Nigerian wed-ding.

A couple of weeks later, I set about searching for and buying black Barbie dolls and accessories. This actually took way more time than I anticipated. Almost all the ac-cessories and dolls weren’t avail-able here in the UK, and had to be sourced from the United States and Hong Kong, and of course search-ing for them and shipping them over really took a while. Making the clothes was another difficult issue, but then my wife decided to take charge of this and sew them herself. We had to buy a mini sewing machine, and surprisingly enough were able to find ‘ethnic’ Barbie doll sewing patterns from some collector in America. My wife of course slightly modified them to suit our purposes.

The set up and posing for the shoot were of course based on

First marriage at Nigiera's puppet society

A new kind of wedding photography

actual images I had created from real weddings, and setting up the shoots was another time-consum-ing aspect of the shoot. Seeing that the dolls couldn’t stand with-out support, I had to build a mini

stage-like studio, and then string the dolls up like puppets for each shoot. Of course the strings were all removed in post-production. I also had mini led torches rigged up to serve as ‘studio’ lights. The

whole project was actually way more time intensive than I ever imagined and I was really happy when it was all over. We actually did start it as a marketing tool for my wedding photography, but I’m

quite happy loads of people loved it for so many other different rea-sons.

Meet the locals


Uche Okpa-Iroha (Nigeria)

In The Plantation Boy series, Uche Okpa-Iroha recontextual-ises Francis Ford Copola’s film The Godfather, where the artist inserts himself into film stills, storyboards, and staged re-en-actments. By examining the re-lationship between the history of Western cinema and the media dynamics of race, Okpa-Iroha embraces a mesh of skewed iden-tity that takes references from multifarious cross-sections of cultures. Okpa-Irohas’s first ma-jor project, Under Bridge Life, was published in 2008 and was later awarded the Seydou Keita Award for the best photography creation at the 8th Bamako En-counters. He is a leading member of the Invisible Borders Trans-African Photography Project and a founding member of the Black-box Photography Collective. He is also the founder of the Nlele Institue (African Centre for Pho-tography), and a fellow of the Ri-jksakademie van beeldende kun-sten, Amsterdam.

Impersonating IconsMystic Statuettes

Icons reviewed

Namsa Leuba (Switzerland)

I am an African-European, born in Switzerland and my project was accomplished on a trip to Guinea Conakry. In this work, I was interested in the construction and deconstruction of the body as well as the depiction of the invis-ible. I have studied ritual arti-facts common to the cosmology of Guineans; statuettes that are part of a ceremonial structure. They are from another world, they are the roots of the living. Thereby, I sought to touch the un-touchable.

Modesty, luck, fecundity or a channel for exorcism, those statu-ettes hold a cultural value through what they represent or symbolise. With this work, I transform these objects, cosmological symbols of a community, who traditionally have a signification when used as part of rituals.

These objects are part of a col-lective that they must not be separated from, or risk loosing

their value. They are not the gods of this community but their prayers. They are integrated in a rigorous symbolic order, where every component has its place. They are ritual tools that I have animated by staging live models and in a way to desecrate them by giving them another meaning; an unfamiliar meaning in the Guin-ean context.

In recontextualizing these sa-cred objects through the lens, I brought them in a framework meant for Western aesthetic choices and taste. This photo-graphic eye would make them speak differently. Throughout my fieldwork, I had to deal with sometimes violent reactions from Guineans who viewed my pro-cedures/practices as a form of sacrilege. Some were afraid and were struck with astonishment.

Namsa Leuba is born in 1982 from a Guinean mother and a Swiss fa-ther. During the past two years, her research focused on African identity through Western eyes. Her work has been published in numerous magazines, including I-D, Numéro, KALEIDOSCOPE, Foam, Interview, Vice Magazine, New York Magazine, Wallpaper, Libération, British Journal of Photography, and European Pho-tography. Namsa Leuba has also received notable international recognitions and has participated in exhibitions worldwide.

"Modesty, luck, fecundity or a chan-nel for exorcism, those statuettes hold a cultural value through what they represent or symbol-ise."

What you see is not always what you get


Samuel James (USA)

Samuel James’ newest series in La-gos explores the youth sub-culture along the Agege Motor Road axis. Spending a significant amount of time becoming intimately aquaint-ed with a group of young people, James focuses on everyday dramas and contradictions played out at the crossroads.

Keep your eyes open!Lagos street culture

Learning from the masters

Leaving impressionsLagosPhoto Festival 2013 – October 26 – November 16 –

this is it!Reclaiming public space


Meet and greet

the who is who at LagosPhotoLagosPhoto Festival 2013 – October 26 – November 16 –

turning pagesBooks and people


explaining the necessary

In the BoxLagosPhoto Festival 2013 – October 26 – November 16 –

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