Photographs always tell stories the way they truly are. In the identities of resilience, a photography exhibition by five Nigerian documentary photographers going on in Lagos at the moment, various issues of environmental degradation, poverty, the quest to survive and more are explored. Edozie Udeze attended the opening ceremony
The photographs truly define the state of confusion and anomie in Nigeria. The photo exhibition opened at the Thought Pyramid Gallery, Lagos, last weekend. There were five photographs who were taught for 3 months in what is now themed Creative Photography Masterclass. The exhibition was entitled identities in resilience involving the following: Adebisi Oluwatosin, Oluwabukunola Adesanwo, Igho Ogbobine, Anthony Monday and Chukwuka Obu. The training took place at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Ogba, Lagos, where the likes of ace-photographer, Tam Fiofori was able to instruct the young ones on the rudiments of the profession.
In fact at the opening on Saturday both the NIJ and Fiofori were on hand to direct proceedings. Fiofori was glad this second edition of the masterclass project came out well. “If I talk about your work in a very hard way, please bear it. It is to help you do better. First of all as a photographer you have to acquire good education to help you do photography very well. You need lots and lots of issues to address and sound and quality education is a must. So try to go to school before you go into photography”, he told the exhibitors as the ceremony got underway at Thought Pyramid, Lagos.
It took the group difficult moments and hectic brainstorming sessions to arrive at the theme of the exhibition to suit the issues raised in the works. This is so because the themes revolved around environmental problems, illegal mining, pollution, the politics of the hijab, the cheer leaders mode of sports and so on.
In beyond sweat and stones by Ogbobine, she got to Kwara State where she researched into illegal quarry mining in a remote village called Ogele. She said: “sitting under trees, hammers swinging in different directions, with stones flying around, the women of Ogele break rocks in the quarry for survival. They work endlessly from dawn to dusk only to end up with 4,600 naira once in every 4 days. Indeed their only tools are hammers with handles sourced from trees around them. In this, danger looms as there are no forms of protection”.
It took Ogbobine, a fragile looking lady, months of shutting between Ogbomoso in Oyo State where she used to lodge Ogele to accomplish this hectic task. In the end the photos were taken and she looked back to see the other side of hard existence by Nigerian women. Ogbobine added: “their biggest worry is not the danger but the ability to cater for their kids so they do not get trapped in the same vicious cycle. What will tomorrow bring? For them, pain and suffering or pleasure and comfort, where do they meet to ensure that lives of people in the community become better? So this focuses extensively on the daily struggles of Halimata Gani”, she said. This woman is 45 years and still struggles over this to survive, to feed her family and ensure the kids go to school.
The photos show her at work with all the commitment it deserved. She sweated, she gritted, she struggled, very pathetic pictures of an endless recourse into the deep foyers of survival. The photographer intoned: “my aim of carrying out this project is to highlight the struggles of women as breadwinners and caregivers of their respective families. Education is therefore very important part of life. In fact, these women will do whatever it takes to make it a reality for their children”.
Monday took a swipe at a dash of identity paying attention to what he termed a multicultural society. “Today’s multicultural society is where we have different types of influences from popular media in which the world has become a global village… However, the windshield of vehicles serving the purpose of rekindling the flames of identity as owners of Lagos yellow buses popularly called danfo and tricycles in the metropolitan city of Lagos paste symbols, pictorial posters and momentoes to express their beliefs”.
These were the issues he raised in his collection showing in diverse forms the menace posed by these set of people on Lagos highways, streets and roads. He used the photographs to describe a state of confusion in the state. He also helps to direct attention to the comic side of these habits. The pictures are clearly instructive, explicit and diverse on this theme. There is the yellow colour everywhere; in all corners of the state, all defining what makes Lagos a mega-city.
Conversely, Adesanwo is interested in the constant dumping of refuges in Lagos without total regard to health, to human safety and so on. She said: “plastic waste is littering almost everywhere; on the streets, gutters, canals, drainages, walkways, including the beaches, just to mention a few. This is very threatening. Accumulation of plastics in the environment is fast increasing by the day to the point where they create problems for habitats as well as for human populations. Here companies produce varieties of pet drinks for flexibility and easy accessibility but it seems to be causing more damages to the environment than the contents filling empty stomachs”.
She went on: “From research it is said that by 2050, there will be more plastics in the ocean than fishes. Now, some enterprising individuals and companies have begun to use the discarded plastics to earn a living by collecting and recycling them into fibre PVC. This way it can be used for clothing, or to make shoes or clothes to cover chairs”.
Therefore, her photos on this aspect of pollution concentrated on Isale Eko area of Lagos, where it is an eyesore to see the level of degradation on the environment. Photos do not tell lie. The amount of plastics at Isale Eko can make anyone who loves the total preservation of the ecosystem weep. It is so terrible and Adesanwo’s photographs took different angles of it. It is revealing. The pictures truly challenge everyone to be conscious of the menace they constitute to the environment now and in the future.
Obu went into the cheers leading sports. Even though it is not yet popular here in Nigeria, it has begun to gather momentum among the youths. It is a sort of swinging sports where people almost hang or be suspended in the air with the aid of their mates. Obu said “In March of 2016, Lilian Obieze was motivated to bring together a group of young women and men to champion the bid of cheer leading as a competitive sport in Lagos. Among the cheer leaders included Hassana, a salsa dancer, now a flyer in the senior team that combines her licensing job, with schooling at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. She teaches younger ones, children and so on dance and she also has time for her church activities…” These constitute the bulk of his photographs which exposed the level of performances, trainings and the amount of people so far involved in the sports in the country.
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