Photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi reveals everyday reality of Lagos
He is one of three winners of this year's Goethe Prize. The Nigerian photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi portrays his hometown Lagos in his photographs.
Lagos: most populous city on the continent
More than 18 million people live in the megacity Lagos. Hardly any other Metropolis in the world is growing so rapidly. Every day more people come from all over the country to Nigeria's capital in the hope of finding work and a better future. Colorful and impulsive, dirty and poor, aspiring and apocalyptic - it's a microcosm of the African continent.
Chronicle of change
This picture was taken around the turn of the millennium. Since then, the city has changed dramatically. Old buildings from the colonial era have made way for modern skyscrapers of glass and steel. In order to create more housing for businesses and Nigeria's wealthy class, the lagoon is currently being filled up. Akinbode Akinbiyi captures these changes neutrally as a photographer.
What is an 'urgent' photo?
Akinbode Akinbiyi often chooses fragments of reality in his photos. What the viewer doesn't see is that the sign indicates a small store for passport photos in Lagos. By just removing a few letters, the photographer poses essential questions.
'19 miles to Lagos'
Since photographer Akinbiyi took this photo in the early 2000s, the metropolis has spread and grown a lot. Lagos is now one of the most expensive cities in Africa. For the photographer, distance is also a symbol of the former British colonial power, which dictated the country while ignoring African conceptions of space and time.
Music, literature, exile
Music legend Abdullah Ibrahim left South Africa for Nigeria during apartheid. Akinbiyi photographed him in Lagos' cult bookstore Glendora. The family enterprise started the "Glendora Review" in the 1990s, which was a forum for the free exchange of ideas during the military dictatorship of Sani Abacha. Many intellectuals left Nigeria, but kept in touch with their country through the magazine.
The internal order of chaos
Even Fela Kuti, one of the most popular African pop stars, sang about the "go-slow." Traffic jams - so typical for Lagos - became a metaphor for the political and social collapse of his country. And yet, even in the middle of seemingly inextricable chaos, there is always a way forward. Akinbode Akinbiyi, in any case, is not a pessimist.
Complicated memories
Akinbode Akinbiyi studied literature and discovered photography later in life. Photography, he says, is "writing with light." His pictures are full of enigmatic poetry, like this one of the marina of Lagos. It reminds him of his childhood - a lost paradise.
Wandering and wondering
Akinbode Akinbiyi says he constantly scrutinizes himself. He almost always travel by foot. He never wants to force himself into the lives of others or violate their privacy. When he takes pictures on his old-fashioned camera he moves so unobtrusively through the streets that he often goes unnoticed.