No fewer than 22 photographers from 18 countries, including Nigeria, will feature in this year’s Lagos Photo Festival opening on October 27 at The Federal Printing Press Building on Lagos Island, Lagos.
The ninth edition of the yearly festival, which has as theme, Time Has Gone, has other events, such as exhibitions, workshops, artists’ presentations, discussions, screening and large scale outdoor installations in public spaces in Lagos. Satellite venues for the festival include Omenka Gallery, African Artists’ Foundation, Gallery 16/16, Alliance Francaise. Factor and Railway compound in Yaba, Ikorodu Park, Falomo Roundabout and Freedom Park.
Assistant Director, Lagos Photo Festival, Charlotte Langhorst, said the festival aims to provide a platform for the development and education of contemporary photography in Africa by establishing mentorships and cross-cultural collaborations with local and international artists. She stated that it also presents photography as it is embodied in the exploration of historical and contemporary issues, the promotion of social programmes and the reclaiming of public spaces.
The festival, which will be curated by Eva Barois De Caeval, Charlotte Langhorst, WunikaMukan and Valentine Umansky, will run till November 15.
According to Langhorst, this year’s theme and conversation of interest are intended to explore contemporary dialogues surrounding different facets of time. “Artists from around the globe have been invited to discuss, confront and wrestle with this idea of urgency. Each in their own way, they investigate the practices of archiving, preservation, imagining the possibility of an Afro-based future, putting an end to a ‘time that is up’ or the never-ending desire to reinterpret a past, laden with both nostalgia and or hidden phantoms.
“Looking at time both from a macro lens and with West African goggles, the curatorial team sheds light on the long way to go, from the then to the now, investigating diverse configurations of time in the least linear way possible,” she added.
Among the exhibiting photographers are MalalaAndrialavidrazana, Emmanuelle Andrianjafy, Ismail Bahri, Sandra Brewster, KwenaChokoe, Crazinis T, AdjiDieye, Ndid Dike and Michjelle Pearson Clarke. Others are Mary Evans, Abosede George, MathildeterHeijne, Amanda Iheme, Alfredo Jaar, Cassandra Klos, KitsoLynnLeliott, AminaMenia, Emo de Medeiros, Karl Ohiri, OluOlatunde, ChibuikeUzoma and Charlotte Yonga.
This year’s festival is being spiced with other special projects, such as Fast Forward: Women in Photography, Canon Photography workshops, NationalGeographic portfolio review, Market Photo workshop exhibition, Naija Gems, a travelling photography exhibition created by the US Consulate-General showing intriguing images capturing Nigerian natural beauty.
National Geographic portfolio review, a staple of the festival is a capacity building platform for emerging photographers with a prize of $5,000 to the winning portfolio.