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It was his
spontaneous chuckle, which always graduated into a warm smile, that I
always remember of Matthew Faji. That I did not know that Matthew Faji
had died and been buried, is a sad indictment of how well the present
generation of editors of national newspapers know those, particularly
photographers, who have contributed so much to build and strengthen
what is now called ‘the new journalism’ in Nigeria. As one of his many
genuine admirers, Nkanu Egbe, said to me recently, “Matthew Faji’s
death should have been front-page news. He was a national treasure in
print journalism!”

It was a call to
another great friend, ‘younger brother and journalistic supporter’ of
Faji, Wole Olaoye, himself recuperating from an accident, that informed
me that Faji had been buried. And it was indeed sad that Olaoye, who
had made me know Faji and his body of work much better, broke the
terrible news.

I knew Matthew Faji
was ill and down. I had spoken with him; he sounded low in spirit, his
voice was weak and, I had promised to call him again. I had lost touch
with him and had last visited him at Oregun, at his Newswatch office
some years back. 2010 being a very special year for Nigeria, I had been
approached by a Frenchman and Swiss lady who were respectively
collecting photographic images for politics and fashion projects on
Nigeria at 50. I automatically recommended Matthew Faji as one of the
best sources for such archival photographic images on Nigeria. With the
help of Olaoye and Dan Agbese in particular, I was able to get the
phone number of Faji’s son who in turn put me in touch with his father,
Matthew.

In 1995, when Jide
Adeniyi-Jones, Don Barber, and myself were considering ‘veteran’
photographers of professional repute to invite to become protem
president of the Photographers’ Association of Nigeria-PAN – an
umbrella body for photographers from all genres – we decided to
approach Faji, Peter Obe, and Okhai Ojeikere. Faji was friendly in
turning down our offer, but that did not diminish the respect we had
for his huge body of work and immense contributions towards
strengthening the standard and quality of photographic work in print
journalism in Nigeria.

Master photographer

Matthew Faji was a
master photographer. His forte was documentary and news photography,
and his favoured medium was medium format black and white celluloid
film, working mostly with a twin-reflex camera.

I personally
considered him then, and now, as the father of magazine photography in
Nigeria. With the older Peter Obe as the doyen of newspaper photography
in Nigeria, the duo of Obe and Faji can be classified as the fathers of
print journalism photography in Nigeria. They definitely were not the
first, but were unquestionably both amongst the very best and had long
and very impressive careers in terms of magnificent and memorable
visual outputs.

In the 90s, Faji
was making a sort of comeback in that he was encouraged to dig into his
bank of characteristic strong and gripping images and offer them for
publication in the Plume, the in-flight magazine of ADC Airlines. He
had earlier made his name and earned professional respect and accolade
as a photographer with the Nigerian franchise of the original South
African magazine, Drum.

I called Olu
Obafemi, who had joined the Drum group as an Assistant Editor of Trust,
back in 1975. He was unaware that Faji had died, and of course
devastated by the sad news. He recalled that Faji was the Chief
Cameraman of the Drum group when he joined and, to him, “Matthew Faji
was photography!”

“Each time Faji
went out on assignment,” Olu Obafemi continued, “he came back with so
many excellent photographs that all the editors would be full of
admiration and they had difficulty choosing what photographs to use.
His photographs were always full of surprise!”

What were some of
his favourite Faji photographs, I asked Obafemi? “One of the greatest
was at Ikenne, during an interview with Awolowo. Awolowo was talking
and he and the editor had forgotten that Faji was around. Then
suddenly, Awolowo threw a long-range punch demonstrating the kind of
punch he was going to give his political opponent, and Faji captured
the famous Awo punch. This was in 1976-77. The other was during FESTAC
’77. A group of dancers from Southern Africa were performing on stage
and suddenly they made a move and Faji captured a stunning photograph
showing a row of their bare buttocks. My third favourite was a
photograph he took when we were interviewing Major Ademoyega of the
first-coup fame. Faji caught the moment when Ademoyega suddenly pointed
at something.”

Action photographs

What made Faji such
a great photographer? “Faji captured events in details that are
frightening,” Obafemi explained. “He was never in a hurry, and he never
removed his eye from the lens throughout an interview, however long,
and he put the interviewee at rest. Yet, he was ready when the action
happened. He had great action photographs of Ahmadu Bello, Zik, and
Awo. Like the photograph of the bare-bottomed women dancers, there were
16 other photographers there but only Faji got that critical shot!”

How does Obafemi
rank Faji? “In photography, I place Faji on a pedestal a little higher
than Obe. Obe had success. Faji was exceptional. He was full of
surprises we all could not expect, and he had the knack for taking that
moment’s action that always told the story.”

I always believed
that in many ways Matthew Faji was a bit too quiet and self-effacing.
He underplayed his great talent and the value of his masterpieces. Olu
Obafemi in turn believes that Faji “was shy.”

Way back in 1977,
Faji had shown Obafemi over 2,000 of his photographs and they had
decided to do a book from them, but they got no sponsors. They were to
revisit the project many times decades later and again, could not
source sponsors.

Matthew Faji had
gone on to work with the weekly news magazine, Newswatch, where he
contributed immensely with his photographic images and was a source of
inspiration and knowledge for the younger photographers there.

He may have been withdrawn in life, but his creative and powerful
images will forever testify that Matthew Faji was indeed a master, and
one of Nigeria’s greatest photographers. Definitely top ten!