Frances Ademola - Ghana's pioneer art gallery owner

Breaking the silence I bring to you Ghana's pioneer art seller Frances Ademola. The 81 year-old lady has been running The Loom, Ghana's first private art gallery, since she returned home in 1969 after a 12 year sojourn in Nigeria. Being in Ghana these days, I have come to know her and enjoy the weekly visits to her gallery on Kwame Nkrumah Street in Accra where she shares a lot of insight with me on her life, work and Ghana and Nigeria of the past. It's always great learning for me.

Wondering why the site has not been updated? It's because I have had to move to work in Ghana. You can find my Ghana work on accracityphotos.blogspot.com

Barcelos

Inside the Galleria is Barcelos, a Portuguese-themed South African restaurant/snack bar that specialises in flame grilled chicken. Shot this image last Saturday as a couple leave holding hands. I just might have something for couples. I need to get married, maybe.

Inside the Silverbird Galleria

This is the Silverbird Galleria's atrium. Most weekends there's a beehive of activity inside. People generally come to see recent Hollywood blockbuster movies as well as shop and have fun. There's an earlier post from last year showing it from the outside. Not a fantastic shot by the way.

For MJ

The Silverbird Galleria has been putting up a show for MJ since his passing with this image of the legend beamed by I-know-not-what-kind-of-technology-and-didn't-bother-asking. Maybe I should have tried to find out. All I know is when one walks on it you have this vision of the image melting/shifting around you. Simple, it's a projection! I knew it.

To MJ who gave us a great time and who we grossly misunderstood. We Love You!

Chimamanda, the Beautyful

Nigeria's most celebrated young writer Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie was in town last Saturday to read from her new book of short stories titled The Thing Around Your Neck. It was at the noisy Silverbird Galleria that she read to a teeming audience some like me who were seeing her for the first time.

Not many writers get to be celebrated like she has been, deservedly so. Hence, my title for this post which is taken from Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah's novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. Certainly, Nigeria has a beauty-ful one in Chima. She's inspiring a new generation of young Nigerians to aim for the sky in whatever they find their hands to do.

I certainly do love the thing around her neck.

Goodbye!!!

My final image from Akure is this beautiful wave goobye from a lady I shared a taxi ride with.

Gas attendants

Attendants at a gas service station. It was a Sunday afternoon so they had run out of petroleum was why they could afford to relax on duty.

Ball juggler

Another of the moments that was fun for me in Akure was when this guy juggled the soccer ball in the marketplace and I just clicked away.

Fingernails

It is the little things that take your breath away. This lady spreads her newly done fingernails for me to photograph at the Oja Oba in Akure.

Great pose

Still in Akure, this guy decides to give me the most interesting pose I've ever photographed. That's why I enjoyed taking photos in Akure, there was a certain kind of innocence in everybody I came across.

Gold sellers

In the market place in Akure I found these two men who pawn gold ornaments. They also deal in black market foreign exchange transactions.

Yam market

I was in Akure, Ondo state where I grew up, recently and had the opportunity of experiencing the vibe of the market place. Oja Oba, the king's market is the biggest shopping place in town and it was where I took this photo of women haggling over yam tubers. Pounded yam is a delicacy in many Nigerian homes.

If you're interested in archaelogy, the entry on Akure on Wikipedia should interest you. It says "Rock engravings dating back to the Mesolithic period, have been discovered on the outskirts of Akure, as has the oldest Homo Sapiens fossil to have been found in West Africa thus far, dating back to around 11,000 years ago."

I can tell you that the people are very warm and I was allowed to take photos freely unlike what happens most times in a big city like Lagos.

Inside out

Picture taken from the inside looking out on Billingsway Road, Ikeja.

Nnena Okore's Of Earth...barks and topography

Artist and art teacher Nnena Okore opened her solo exhibition Of Earth...barks and topography at the Goethe Institut,

Victoria Island on Saturday. It explores the link between the earth and environment, a call to examining how humans treat the environment. Using a technique derived from the traditional papier mache, Okore weaves newspapers, starch, glue, twigs, ropes and clay to create "biomorphic forms" which leave some curiousity in me. I think I need to go back and see again to make better sense of it.

Warming up 2

Like the advert for the World Cup says: We can't wait!

Warming up

The World Cup comes up in Africa next year and many young footballers would be hoping to be part of the various African national teams to participate at the fiesta. I have been chosen among a select group of African journalists called the All Stars that will be trained by World Press Photo and Freevovice.nl to cover the tournament in South Africa next June.

Skater boy

I tried to capture his face in this shot.

Street skating

Zigzag skating on busy roads is not a common sight in Lagos. But this guy really had great confidence going as he moved without fear in traffic on Kudirat Abiola Way, Oregun, one evening recently.

Lines in the night sky

Trying my hands on some abstract compositions of late. Does this make sense?, I ask myself. I don't know, only that it feels good to try.

A jumble of colours

Tried a short at a moving yellow bus but the shaking of the vehicle in which I rode in brought out the result that you see in today's post, a jumble of colours!

Gangan drummers

Drummers at a traditional Yoruba wedding ceremony. The drums are an intricate part of Yoruba culture, they are used to speak to the community. I did a photo documentary about the beauty and intricacies of traditional Yoruba wedding and the role of the drums for a cultural blog Mali to Memphis. Please check it out here

The Union

Two friends of mine decide to become one as they take marriage vows in a court registry recently. It's a great thing when two become one. Wishing them happy married life! 

Evening papers 2

This fellow tried to dodge my shot by covering his face with the papers. Today June 12 is when we remember Nigeria's freest and fairest ever elections of 1993 which was won by MKO Abiola . In the western states of Nigeria it is usually a public holiday. 

Evening papers

A shot of vendors selling evening papers in crawling traffic after work at Alausa. The headline of this paper exclaims: Police detain 4 cows!

Fin Bank

Fin Bank has changed its name a couple of times over the last five years. It used to be called the IMB Bank before it became First Inland and now Fin Bank. One thing remains constant though, the blue glass walls that many locals believe creates an aura that attracts the ocean. The Atlantic Ocean overflows its banks at the Bar Beach close to this building but seems to have been well checked lately by the concrete boulders erected at its shores.

Traffic lights

All motorists come to a stop at a junction as the seconds tick down to the green light. 

Horsing around

The last in my Bar Beach series, a horse rider at the beach. Fun seekers pay token amounts to ride on horse back at most beach resorts in Lagos.

Ice cream time

Kids purchasing ice cream from a vendor at the Bar Beach.

Yoghurt vendor

Still from my Bar Beach series, a yoghurt vendor walks across my shot

Family fun time

At the Bar Beach, Victoria Island, a couple of days ago I spied this couple with child, happy and united, taking a stroll on the embankment. 

Fela lives!

This image of Seun Kuti with the tattoo FELA LIVES on his back (a reference to his father) appears in TELL Magazine's Lensview section this week. Made the image at his concert in Accra in February.

Watching Ehikhamenor

This lady was so into some of Victor Ehikhamenor's female visions during the exhibition opening. Victor is also a photographer and creative director of NEXT, the newspaper that's trying to change the way news is reported in Nigeria these days.

Betty's day

Betty is our beautiful rottweiller. She's very playful and I struggled to get her to stay like this for just five seconds so I could get this portrait of hers.

Barcelona fans rejoice in Lagos

Prior to last night's UEFA Champions League final match between FC Barcelona and Manchester United, I had seen Barca fans dancing around Surulere in a carnival-like procession. It was like they knew what the outcome of the match would be. In other parts of the Lagos metropolis some fans had a big feast where they celebrated by killing a cow, Lagos style. The match ended 2-0 in Barca's favour and there was rejoicing throughout the night for the fans.
At Ojota there was this jersey of Christiano Ronaldo hung out in the open. I think it was a sign of things to happen.

Laughter of the African child

This is one of my more favourite images. I enjoy looking at the beautiful expression on the face of this child. She reminds me of myself. I tell people that I am a happy person, music always plays in the back of my mind.

I pray that this joy can be transfered to many children as we mark Children's Day in Nigeria today.

Victor Ehikhamenor's Art

Victor Ehikhamenor

On Sunday, Victor Ehikhamenor opened his first solo exhibition (since his return last year after a 15 year sojourn in the US) Mirrors and Mirages at the Terra Kulture, Victoria Island. It is a collection of works done in acrylic on canvas, oil on canvas, found art, paint, ink and pen. One of the works that moved me the most is that titled Power play- I better pass my neighbour where he uses the installation of a small power generating set to defamiliarise the serious power shortage that afflicts the Nigerian society.

Peacock's grace

My first time of seeing (outside of TV) a peacock spread out its beautiful plume trying to impress a peahen. And trust me, I couldn't resist taking a shot.

Street DJ

This disc jockey was busy entertaining the neighbourhood of Broad Street from the balcony of popular joint Mr. Biggs during one of the public holidays recently.

National Theatre

The complex was constructed in the 1970s to host the Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture, FESTAC 77. This view is from the Carter Bridge.

Ojota Pedestrian Bridge: Still Under Construction

Little progress on the Ojota bridge almost a year on

The foot bridge at Ojota has been under construction for more than a year now. I shot an image of it last July and there's been scant progress on it since. I hope these two images show the government that citizens are keeping tab on its performance.

The bridge in July 2008

Journalists graduate

Nigeria's foremost journalism institute the NIJ graduated students last week Thursday in Ogba.

Shepherdhill Baptist Church

Seen from on top of the Obanikoro pedestrian bridge, Shepherdhill Baptist Church looks like the Interceptor plane of the US Airforce.

The cross, the tasbih and a Chelsea cap

Took this image in a bus recently. The unity of the world's biggest religions is emphasised in how the bus owner places the symbols of Christianity and Islam side by side as well as that of the emerging new religion, football, symbolised by a Chelsea FC logo.

Four men under one umbrella

It's been raining heavily in Lagos during the last couple of days. I saw these four men sharing one umbrella when the showers toned down a little.

Bikes on a pedestrian bridge

Illegal maneuvre by these riders on a pedestrian bridge at Obanikoro. Often, taxi-bike riders or okada as we call them are very unruly bordering on lawlessness.

Sun shades and apples

Apples on sale at Yaba Terminus. I liked the reflection on the sun shades.

Nigeria's young journalist for 2008

Here's an image I've wanted to share for a while now. Two weeks ago Ademilola Bilewomo, my colleague at work was voted the Nigeria Young Journalist of the Year at an awards ceremony held at the Lagos Press Centre. She beat over a hundred other applicants nationwide to the award that is in its third year. She writes for TELL Magazine, Nigeria's most respected weekly independent.

Last year the award was taken home by my friend Segun Adeoye and here's a post I made.

She was presented with among other prizes a laptop computer. It's interesting that she had recently lost her computer to robbers who attacked her on the way home after a late night at the office.




A group picture of the ten finalists. Among whom are Umejei Emeka, (Daily Independent, 1st runner up), Abiola Odutola (Broad Street Journal, 2nd runner up), Ayodeji Adeyemi(TELL Magazine), Arukaino Umukoro (TELL Magazine) and Lolade Sowoolu-Coates(Vanguard).