Photography
workshop with the theme Visual Identity, covering conceptual
project-based idea via lectures and critiques, returned to Lagos for it's
second edition.
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| Eva Maria Ocherbauer and a section of participants during the workshop |
Organised
under FotoFactory, a project founded by Eva Maria Ocherbauer and Sylvester
Okwunodu Ogbechie, the event added to the growing energy of photography
enthusiasts and professionals in Lagos, so suggested the response of
participants at Centre for Contemporary Art
(CCA), Yaba.
Day one of the workshop had Ocherbauern
taking participants on 'Introduction.' It was also an interactive session that
featured tips and techniques of taking
photographs. Also discussed were gains
and benefits of dispensing photographic expression through the social media.
Ocherbauer shared more of her thoughts with
select guests: "We have been doing this with some of the students since
five years ago," recalling how the projects started after her LagosPhoto
experience. In 2014, Ocherbauer was in Lagos for Eko Atlantic project.
"African photography is being
appreciated more in recent years at international scene," she noted.
At the CCA gallery space for the workshop,
some of the participants shared their experience. Ralph Eluehike works on
domestic subjects, using photography in performance concept to highlight issues
that surround engagements of workers. The project, which he calls In Shadows
of Domestic Work, features stage-captured scenes taken over a period of
four to five years of the concept.
For Aisha Adeyemi, the disappearing
architecture relics of pre-colonial Lagos, as well as the city's new features
are attractions to her camera lens. "I have been working on old, colonial
era buildings around Marina for about three years," Adeyemi stated.
"Buildings are part of our history and we need to document them."
More daring was the choice of Ayo Akinwande.
He has been moving from one dangerous spot to another in some volatile parts of
Nigeria.
"Right now, I am working on the Southern
Kaduna crisis by interviewing and taking photographs of the victims of violence
there."
He disclosed how his visit to Benue State
also exposed him to realtime plights of victims of communal violence. In
getting results amid the violence and frustrations of the affected people, the
approach had to be well thought-out. Akinwande recalled how he almost
experienced one of the violence scenes in the area with such a vast terrain.
"I try to get personal with the people to get what I wanted."
Facilitated by Ocherbauer, photographers
Abraham Oghobase and Andrew Esiebo, the workshop, according to the organisers,
featured students who were training on how to gain a conscious and intuitive
understanding of the visual language of photography and develop a personal
signature so as to foster ideas on contemporary visual practice, as well as the
process of editing towards the production of a consistent and compelling
narrative.
Ocherbauer is an internationally acclaimed
Austrian photographer based in Berlin and lectures at the Neue Schule für
Fotografie. Ogbechie specialises on the arts and visual culture of Africa and
its Diasporas. He is Professor of History of Art and Architecture, University
of California, Santa Barbara and Director of Aachron Knowledge Systems.
Oghobase is a Nigerian photographer and
mentor based in Lagos. He is using a combination of performance and photography
to explore urban identity and the ways that socio-economic dynamics shape
people’s lives. Esiebo started out in photography by chronicling the rapid
development of urban Nigeria, as well as the country’s rich cultures and
heritage. He has been awarded a number of residencies, but is based in Lagos.
It was supported by The Femi Akinsanya
African Art Collection and Aachron Incorporated. The facilitators, for example,
noted that every photograph, irrespective of its category, is a reflection of
one’s own sensitivity, the meeting point between a moment and an emotion.
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