Nigeria’s international photo festival
The LagosPhoto Festival returns on the 24th of October, until the 27th of November. Nigeria’s only international photo festival, it is in its sixth year, and promises another expressive display of African lives and cultures through photography. This year’s exhibition is entitled Designing Futures. This sixth edition is intended to present and understand the relationship between African design, and the hopes and desires of the artists, and the continent. During the month long festival, events include exhibitions, workshops, artist presentations, discussions and large scale outdoor prints displayed throughout the city with the aim of reclaiming public spaces and engaging the general public with multifaceted stories of Africa.
LagosPhoto aims to establish a community for contemporary photography which will unite local and international artists through images that encapsulate individual experiences and identities from across all of Africa. LagosPhoto presents and educates about photography as it is embodied in the exploration of historical and contemporary issues, the sharing of cultural practices, and the promotion of social programmes. BRIC Plus News shines a spotlight on some of the event’s most intriguing photographers.
Owise Abuzaid
“It all started as a hunt for interesting compositions in the streets of Cairo using an element as easy to handle and as eye catching as the yellow shirt”
Owise Abuzaid is a 22 year old photographer from Cairo, Egypt. Having started only four years ago during college, Abuzaid is already acclaimed. Currently a freelance photographer and a student of film-making, Abuzaid’s photography follows the experimental school, focusing on minimalism and abstraction. In 2014, he won two prizes at The Youth Salon, an Egyptian national competition for the visual arts.
William Ukoh
“We live in a time where the topic of cultural appropriation, or variants of the term, has become more prevalent in casual conversation. Every participant of said conversation has an opinion on what it means to ‘borrow’ from another culture. Who decides what’s what?”
William Ukoh is a Nigerian fashion photographer who is based in Toronto, studying Film Studies at Ryerson University. Ukoh’s interests lie in the use of visual art as a means for expression, with photography being his main medium.
Patrick Willocq
“It is a visual projection of what the Ekonda Walé motherhood ritual could become as it continues to resist and embrace pressure of modern life”
After working in multinationals in Asia for over twenty years, French-born Patrick Willocq turned his hand to photography. Having spent seven years in the DRC, in 2012, Willocq returned to the country, and decided to dedicate his time to photographing the country in all its glory. His series “On the road from Bikoro to Bokonda, DR Congo” won the 2012 AFD best photo project Award. A finalist or nominee of six other prestigious international photography awards, Willocq will exhibit at LagosPhoto 2015, fresh from first prize at the Grandprix Fotofestiwal 2015 Łódź in Poland.
Ima Mfon
“In these images, the skin tones are rich, deep and beautiful to celebrate our beautiful skin, for which we are often oppressed and marginalized. I use a plain background to eliminate any cultural or ethnic context, whether of urban disrepair or African wilderness”
Lagos-born and raised, Imo Ifon has always been engulfed at the heart of Nigerian culture. A traveller, Ifon has lived in many countries, and this informs his photography. With his work, Ifon seeks to use portrait photography in partcular to explore issues of social and cultural identity. A recent graduate of New York’s prestigious School of Visual Arts, Ifon holds an Master of Professional Studies in Digital Photography. After being exhibited at the Klompgching Gallery in New York and published in Blink Magazine, Ifon returns to his home town for LagosPhoto 2015.
The LagosPhoto Festival 2015 starts on the 24th October, and runs until the 27th of November. More information is available here.
