LagosPhoto Festival kicks-off October 25

The LagosPhoto Foundation presents the fifth edition of the annual LagosPhoto Festival starting from October25, 2014 to November 26 2014, with the theme: Staging Reality, Documenting Fiction.

Launched in 2010, LagosPhoto is the first and only international arts festival of photography in Nigeria. The month-long event will feature 40 photographers spanning 21 countries in exhibitions, workshops, artist presentations, discussions, screenings, and large scale outdoor installations in congested public spaces in Lagos. The festival provides platform for the development of contemporary photography in Africa by establishing mentorships and cross-cultural collaborations with local and international artists. The theme for this examines contemporary photographers working in Africa who negotiate boundaries and relationships between photography, beliefs, and truths.

The festival opens to public on October 25, 2014 at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. Satellite exhibition venues in arts and cultural spaces throughout the city extend to Omenka Gallary, Africa Artists’ Foundation, Stranger Lagos, Goethe-Institut, Alliance Francaise, and Miliki. Outdoor exhibitions in public spaces in Lagos include; Mauri Okunola Park, Victoria Island, Falomo Roundabout, Ikoyi, Beko Ransome Kuti Park, Antony Village. Other places include: Awojobi Park, Onike, MKO Abiola Park, Ikeja, and Dolphin Park, Ikoyi.

LagosPhoto is proudly sponsored by the Eko Hotel & Suites and Etisalat Nig. Ltd, with partners such as World Press Photo and the Archive of Modern Conflict. Supporters include Lagos Inland Revenue Service, Lagos Signage and Advertising Agency, Lagos State Park, Lagos State Ministry of Tourism and Culture. Others are Lufthansa, Microsoft, Romarong, Pirelli, WINGS Magazine, PIXERS. Luxeria, Doculand, Pernod Ricard Nigeria, iREP, Universal Furniture, Goethe Institute, British Council, and Easy Taxi are also sponsors. LagosPhoto is additionally supported by the Ford Foundation.

Artists participating at the festival include: Ade Adekola (Nigeria), Laurence Agerter (France), Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou (Benin), Jenevieve Aken (Nigeria), Seun Akisanmi (Nigeria), Aisha Augie-Kuta (Nigeria), Ricardo Cases (Spain), Edson Chagas (Angola), Kudzanal Chiurai (Zimbabwe), Pierre Christophe Gam (France/Cameroun) among others. Special projects for this year will include: Archive of Modern Conflict, an exhibition of Nollywood/Bollywood images, the Out of Africa project, the studio Cameroon film screening and exhibition that examines the history of the popular photography studio photo jeunesse.

Others include; LagosPhoto Summer School, a ten-day master workshop in Lagos in partnership with the Neue Schule fὓr Fotografie in Berlin, Germany, Etisalat Photography Competition: Mastering the Selfie, POCAP ’14, LagosPhoto Award for Excellence in Photography where Samuel Fasso, legendary photographer, will be honoured with Award for Excellence in Photography, Interventions, YECA/iREP Film Screening, Square Award, Molue Mobile Museum of Contemporary art (MMMoCA),  World Press Photo, LagosPhoto Mobile App, and LagosPhoto International Exhibitions.

At a press conference held in Lagos, recently, Matthew Wilsher, CEO, Etisalat Nigeria Ltd., said his company is “passionate about inspiring innovation and creativity across Africa.”

Wilsher stressed that his organisation is trying to expand photography beyond professional photographers by identifying and exposing amateur photographers to international limelight. He explained that through the festival, people can use the platform to tell their stories with photography.

Wunika Mukan, brand director, LagosPhoto Foundation, explained that the photo Festival would provide a platform to inspire social change and correct the stereotyped perception about the socio-cultural landscape of the country. “We want to use the LagosPhoto festival to inspire social change and right the negative perception about our country”, she said.

For Danny Kiopouroghon, general manager, Eko Hotel & Suites, the photo festival has great economic values as it aims at bringing out the best from both professional photographers while extending an opportunity for amateur photographers to participate and get exposed. He added that his organisation was “proud and happy to be part of the festival because of its high values”.