Nigeria Content Online

Ebi Atawodi studied
Electrical Electronics Engineering at the University of Nottingham, UK
and is now the creative director of Inden, a company which offers
identity, website, environmental and literature design.

The company
launched its ‘Nigerians Behind the Lens’, a limited edition fine art
photography book showcasing nine contemporary Nigerian photographers on
Thursday, December 9 at The Terrace, Four Points, Sheraton,Victoria
Island, Lagos.

Works by Adolphus
Opara, Amaize Ojeikere, Andrew Esiebo, Emeka Okereke, George Osodi,
Jide Alakija, TY Bello, Uche Okpa-Iroha and Yetunde Ayeni-Babaeko are
featured in the beautiful bound book which costs N35.000. Atawodi spoke
about the book at the launch party.

You had this idea in 2006 but it’s just coming into fruition. Why did it take so long?

Really, the project
is supposed to be a book for clients. It was meant to be a much smaller
photography book. We (as a company) have never been in Nigeria and it
grew and morphed into what it is today. We didn’t want to hurry the
process; we wanted to understand the industry. It’s a bit insulting if
you come in and almost decide to make a book when you have no idea
about Nigerian photography. Along the way, we’ve met people and made
very meaningful relationships and that’s what made the book what it is
today.

Do you now consider yourself knowledgeable enough about Nigerian photography?

Quite
knowledgeable. Over the years, I’ve met around 60 to 100 Nigerian
photographers from all walks of life. People who work a day job and are
photographers in passing; people who are fashion photographers but only
work in the studio; people who are interested in Fine Art, all kinds of
photographers and I think based on that, I’ve got a solid understanding
of what the industry is like. The problems, the pains… I had the
opportunity to interview every single photographer in the book, so I
also got insights.

What were the criteria used in selecting the nine photographers?

There has never
really been, none that I’m aware of, a book celebrating just Nigerian
contemporary photography. When you ask about Nigerian photographers,
people are aware of them, but not a lot outside the industry. So we
needed this book to travel. That was the goal. It will get to people
who probably have never heard about Nigerian photography, or people who
have heard about Nigerian photography but have not seen this kind of
photography.

We really wanted to
make sure that we were saying something and the criteria for that was
one: contemporary. We want people in the current. There are old
photographers like Don Barber, Sunmi Smart-Cole but we’ve seen a lot of
their work so we wanted to show the newer, upcoming photographers. We
also wanted to have a cross section of the different styles of
photography; photo journalism, documentary photography, fine art;
fashion photography, still life; landscape, we wanted to have immense
talent. Finally, it was those who resonated with us on the project;
those who felt the energy and passion that we had.

This is the first edition, will there be others?

The plan is to
continue to showcase Nigerian photography. We might have a book on just
amateurs; we might have one on just Architecture photography. With time
and as the project carries on, we‘ll have more and more photographers,
richer collection of images, richer bodies of work, interesting
subjects. We‘ll just go on from there. I can’t tell you what the next
one will be but there will be one very soon, probably two years. It
will not take four years, this time.

Why the limited number of copies, just 1000?

I like things to
have value, I like books. You come to my home I have dozens of books
and there is something quite nice about knowing that there only a
thousand copies of them. It’s crazy, it’s like you knowing that there
are 1000 copies and they are all sold out and that’s it. People who
have this 1000 copies, it’s creating a web and there will be another
edition people can look forward to. I don’t like the idea of having
millions of books floating around the world; I like it when people can
have a truly collectible piece. They will be one among a thousand who
own the book. I feel there is something special about that.