As a hobby, I photograph mostly nature and urban spaces. As an art, I like to make aesthetically delicate images but politically charged images.
Places I go (2016 – ongoing)
Exhibited at the Family of no man, Rencontres d’Arles
Places I go juxtaposes images of spring-time in Central Park with images depicting the socio-economic situation in Nigeria, Ghana, and Brazil. Combined, each image tells the story of how different halves of the world live, drawing on the historical and contemporary context of both locations. New York’s Central Park is a symbol of affluence. It invites viewers to imagine how things might have been without colonialism and capitalism.
R: Central Park, New York, U.S.A
Both images tell the story of how different halves of the world live, drawing on the historical and contemporary context of both locations. New York’s Central Park is a symbol of affluence. Reports show that ex-slave communities were destroyed to build Central Park. The Igbos, many of who have homes in Enugu, Nigeria, today, were one of the main ethnic groups enslaved between the 16th and 19th century. Since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, and after the Nigerian civil war, which represented nationalist separationist ambitions of mostly Igbo people, fiercely entrepreneurial Igbo people in Nigeria claim to be marginalized in terms of positions power and authority in the Federal government. The sight of rundown or abandoned public and private facilities is common in Enugu.
Borno* (2018 – ongoing)
Images of the beauty and resilience of the people of Borno State, Nigeria. Since the early 2000’s armed insurgents, popularly called Boko Haram has killed tens of thousands of people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. The insurgency has displaced nearly 2.8 million people. It continues to cause grave violations of human rights, widespread sexual and gender-based violence, forced recruitment and suicide bombings. The crisis has been exacerbated by conflict-induced food insecurity and severe malnutrition.
