Akinbode Akinbiyi's photographic poetry

Akinbode describes himself as a "deliberate wanderer" who "makes" rather than shoots photographs. He's based in Berlin but often travels in Africa, bringing his medium-format camera to places such as South Africa and Mali, where this photo was taken. He was awarded the Goethe medal in 2016, participated in documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel in 2017, and has exhibited around the world.

From his series "Sea Never Dry," Akinbiyi depicts Bar Beach near the Nigerian city of Lagos. Formerly a popular beach with city dwellers, since he shot the images in 2006, the beach has been destroyed to make way for building materials for Atlantic City, a Dubai-reminiscent high-end development built on reclaimed land. With 18 million inhabitants, Lagos is considered a megacity.

The women in the picture are wearing white to show their affiliation with Pentecostal churches. Church masses and celebrations, which can involve hours of singing and disturb neighbors, explains Akinbiyi, were held in public spaces including Bar Beach before it was closed to the public. On the weekends, worshipers would even spend the night on the beach following the celebrations.

Shot in the city of Lagos, under the sign "Urgent photo here" sits a photographer who sets up a small shop, offering his services for those who need passport photos for the nearby embassies but have little time to spare. Akinbiyi's work featured in the exhibition frequently depicts the use of photography in different contexts.

This photo from the series "African Quarter" shows a controversial street sign in the Berlin neighborhood covered up with a replacement name. The original, Petersallee, refers to the German colonial ruler, while the temporary replacement sign bears the name of Witbooi, an African resistance fighter. Akinbiyi has been photographing life in this neighborhood since the 1990s.

This photo booth in the Berlin neighborhood of Kreuzberg again plays on Akinbiyi's interest in exploring the medium of photography. Akinbiyi noticed that this booth, which was recently boarded up, was frequently used as a toilet or place to shoot up by neighborhood drug users. Many of his photos that show the world exactly as it is without sugarcoating reality.

Capturing coincidence is part of how Akinbiyi works. Whilst shooting an image of an advertisement of new buildings to be built on an industrial construction site in Berlin, a man walked into his shot and fit perfectly into its composition. He explains: "I happened to be standing there trying to make this photo and he came into it. This is what I call serendipity."