A new frontier photography: Lagos

A couple of weeks ago I went to Lagos, Nigeria to attend the Lagos Photo Festival. I had been to Bamako several times, had found the quality pretty consistent but the event felt quite formal and isolated from mainstream Bamako. So this year I decided to go and check out the Lagos Photo Festival.

I had heard lots of good things about Azu Nwagbogu, the founder and director of the African Artists’ Foundation and the director of Lagos Photo and I had met Cristina De Middel, the curator of the Festival’s sixth edition Designing Futures. Her background is photojournalism but she moved to art photography with her Afronauts series, a fantastic project full of imagination. Both of them and the small organizational team worked around the clock to put this together.

My preconceptions of Lagos were shaped in part by my readings of Nigerian novels, the press and by a few friends who had visited Lagos. In short I was a bit apprehensive when I landed at the airport, which was in a terrible state of disrepair and did nothing to make me feel at ease. However, when I arrived at the Eko hotel on Victoria Island and met up with the Lagos Festival team and other attendees (mostly photographers and photography editors) I quickly relaxed. I was assured that getting around was not a problem beyond the issue of terrible traffic; Uber was alive and doing well in Lagos and anyway I was to tag along with all them whenever I wished. Their enthusiasm for the place was uplifting and I was getting back in touch with my adventurous spirit!

I was mysteriously upgraded to the side building and checked into my room, which had a great view of the Kuramo Lagoon. I could see in the distance a long line of tankers waiting to unload their gasoil. Nigeria while being rich in oil reserves does not refine therefore needs to import gasoline. Closer to the hotel new constructions sites were sprouting along a recently created sandbank. Indeed the demand for new luxury housing here is such that land is being reclaimed from the sea. As I was driven around by delightful Alex the following day I could see a helter kilter mix of old crumbling buildings, new construction sites and abandoned ones because of a lack of funds mid project.

At the hotel the day of the opening of the Lagos Festival there was quite a buzz. At first I thought it was for the art show since it was to take place at the hotel but the level of armed men, preparations (rugs rolled out) and dignitaries seemed a bit excessive. In fact the mayor of Lagos was celebrating his 80^th birthday and was expecting 3000 guests through out the afternoon and evening! It was quite fun and a treat to watch the women and men arriving all decked up in their sartorial traditional elegance. Walking through the wall of security men was a bit unnerving but after all these years in Africa I could handle it.

The Festival opened that night with the first exhibition of the Festival. In contrast to Bamako Biennale this festival includes a mix of local and international photographers with a common theme: Africa. The idea behind the festival is to encourage a discourse about photography in Africa through exhibitions and workshops while engaging the broader public from Lagos by having a good many outdoor exhibitions in public spaces.

I liked this focus on the local community, this commitment to introducing and expanding the role of photography locally while aiming to encourage quality work. With little governmental support it achieves a lot in an African way. By that I mean that there were a few mishaps in the beginning but we all took them in stride and kept our sense humor.

This year’s focus was on constructed realities with the photographer’s imagination as the main driver . In other words the photographer instead turns to fictional narratives to express his view of the world instead of reporting on events or documenting”reality” directly. The approach as a result was more conceptual. The results were mixed but I think it is an area to keep pushing.

I attended a couple of the panels where some of the photographers talked about their work and witnessed curator Simon Njami challenge the photographers by reminding them that they are photographers first and story tellers second. There was a tendency from the artists to talk little about the making of the photograph and more about the underlying story which is something I have witnessed all too often in contemporary African (though not exclusively) art. A worthy cause does not automatically make for good art!

I was there with the Paris photography editor of the New York Times and her sister, the founder of an artist residency in New York and we all exchanged ideas with the photographers about their work. Part inquiry, part critique, it was a valuable exchange for all it seems.

The opening was well attended mostly by a young local community, which was great to see!

Here are some of the works that were on display.

Pantsula by Chris Saunders from South Africa. This series sets out to document this South African predominant township subculture. It is a mindset and lifestyle and is expressed through language, music, dress code and a narrative dance form.

Unomgcana by Nobukho Nqaba from South Africa. Those plastic mesh bags have become a global symbol of migration across borders but also within countries. Though overwhelmed by these bags she keeps her poise! Amazing.

Prophecy by Belgian-Beninese Fabrice Monteiro, which addresses the terrible destruction of our environment. His work has been shown in many places but what I liked here was the inclusion of  a video on his process, which was fascinating. We see the costumes being made, the model on stilts putting it on and we witness the dealings with the local community where the scenes get shot, and who are not always welcoming.

My Lagos by Robin Hammond from New Zealand. These are stills from a multivideo project for National Geographic. Hammond walked the streets of Lagos and gives a glimpse of the diversity of characters and life in Lagos.

Awoulaba by Joana Choumali from Cote d’Ivoire where she explores the complex notion of femininity, beauty and body image in contemporary African society. Display mannequins are increasingly customized to reflect a local aesthetic and body form.

This particular series inspired us to pose for our own version of the subject…

 

We were on our way to the Chinese Market the next day – it took for ever as the van was going 10 miles per hour – and arrived to find out it was closed! So always ready to improvise the photographers in the group started to take snapshots of the place and we, the non professionals, became a bit goofy: this is the result!

From there we went to the POPCAP’15’s (the Piclet.org prize for African contemporary African photography) installation at the Yuba university which was fantastic. Hung outdoors in the midst of the university it was a dramatic installation. Students were milling around curious as to what was going on. I got to know a bit more about PopCap and they are doing a superb job. They got about 700 submissions from 58 countries. After a selection process the frontrunners are reviewed by a panel of “judges”, a group of curators, publishers, artists, and directors of galleries of important photography organizations. The finalists and their work becomes the subject of an exhibition that tours Africa and beyond.

 

Interior Landscapes by Filipe Branquinho from Mozambique.

Jua Kali by Tahir Carl Karmali from Kenya

 

Ultramar (Empire Travel Club) by Romaric Tisserand from France. This was pretty strong work and disturbing. The artist found 6 rolls of negatives buried in the ground in Lisbon of portraits of young Africans and soldiers from another time. He appropriates the images, merges past and present, and reframes history.

An exhibition at the Omeka gallery showed a selection from the New York Times ‘Lens’ blog curated by Whitney Richardson, producer of the New York Times Lens blog. Check out the photographers work, most of them are photojournalists and take you to places you have never been.

Inserted in this exhibition ( why? nobody knows but that did not worry anyone) was the work of James Ostrer. Take a close look it is all made of sweets and cream pastry! Amazing and James was super cool.

The last day I stopped at the Alara store, which was designed by David Adjaye and caters to the African woman who likes color, drama, and adornment says owner Reni Folawiyo.

A last stop at the African Artists’ Foundation where we witnessed a photography class.

It took more almost three hours to get to the airport. It can take as long as four actually on a bad day, which is everyday. On a very good day it takes 45 minutes!

Once I got home I realized I had left too soon as many more exhibitions, some in public spaces, opened after my departure. Some had been scheduled to open earlier but hadn’t. It is a good thing to remember that one often needs time when in Africa. Being in a rush does not pay off.

Finally I had a nice chat with a local handsome businessman who wanted to switch from the oil business to a consumer product base project. I asked him if he bought art to hang on his walls. His response was “ it is too expensive” to which I said that photography could be a good place to start but obviously only if the dealers don’t price out the middleclass person on the African continent!

This is what I came home with!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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