Nigeria's Largest Photo Festival: A New Look at Africa

When organizing the first ever photo festival in Nigeria, LagosPhoto Director Azu Nwagbogu, and others from the African Artists’ Foundation had one major objective in mind: offer a platform where photographers could narrate fresh stories about their continent. Their mission was to empower photographers to remedy the negative images associated with the continent, as specifically highlighted by western media.

The story behind the photography festival

Nwagbogu knew that Africa had a story to tell that was in contrast to the traditional documentary photography which portrayed it as a hopeless continent. While traveling, he came across new perspectives and visuals that showed the true life in Africa. Nwagbogu believed that this side of the continent needed visibility and thus the festival came into being.

LagosPhoto Festival 2014

The festival, now in its 5^th year, is a month long event running from October 25 – November 26m 2014 with all exhibits open to the public. The theme for LagosPhoto Festival 2014 is ‘Staging Reality: Documenting Fiction’. Contemporary photographers examine working in Africa that toe the line between photography and truth, incorporating conceptual practices and performative strategies that expand traditional photographic approaches and techniques.