African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), the organisers of the LagosPhoto Festival, Nigeria’s leading international photography festival, has announced that the festival will transition to a biennale format.
The upcoming 2025 edition will explore the theme ‘Incarceration’, delving into both visible and invisible forms of confinement—ranging from physical imprisonment to intellectual, psychological, and societal restrictions.
According to Azu Nwagbogu, artistic director of the festival, this year’s edition will challenge artists to interrogate and deconstruct the various layers of captivity that define contemporary existence.
From outdated mental frameworks to national borders and digital surveillance, the LagosPhoto 2025 invites critical visual narratives that imagine pathways to liberation.
Also, the AAF noted that the transition to a biennale allows extended time for artists and curators to engage more deeply with the festival’s themes, ensuring a richer and more impactful artistic experience.
Meanwhile, this year’s festival will be shaped by a dynamic curatorial team that will be bringing fresh voices and perspectives to the festival’s thematic approach.
They include: Kelechi Anabaraonye, a historian whose work focuses on Nigeria’s colonial-era history, Afro-Brazilian architecture, and Lagos’ rich heritage; Courage Dzidula Kpodo, an architecture graduate and researcher based between Ghana and the US; Amelie Koerbs, a documentary photographer and curator based in between Ghana and Germany and Robin Riskin, a curating-artist born in Brooklyn and rooted in Ghana.
Others are: Maria Pia Bernadoni, a contemporary art curator and project facilitator specializing in photography and community-based art initiatives and Azu Nwagbogu, artistic director of the festival, who is renowned for his curatorial vision that intersects contemporary art and critical discourse.
The LagosPhoto will launch from October 25 – November 29, 2025.
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