Board Members
Akinbode Akinbiyi
Akinbode Akinbiyi
Born in Oxford. Studied Literature in Ibadan, Lancaster and Heidelberg before taking up photography in 1974. In 1987 he was awarded the Stern Reportage scholarship, which enabled him to continue his long-term project on the mega-cities of Lagos, Cairo, Johannesburg and Kinshasa. Founding member of the UMZANSI cultural centre in Durban.
He is a photographer, curator and writer based in Berlin and working on mega-cities, especially those on the African continent: Cairo, Lagos, Kinshasa, Johannesburg. The city as a space of personal involvement, personal striving to come to terms with the everyday.
Recent group exhibitions: “Afropolis” in Cologne and Bayreuth, 2010; “Pret-a-partager” in Dakar, Capetown, Lagos, Douala, Berlin and Stuttgart, 2009 – 2012. Akinbiyi has curated shows in Germany on DakArt 2008 in Berlin and Stuttgart; on the Bamako Rencontres, also in Germany and has co-curated shows at the Bamako Rencontres on Nigerian photohgraphy, 2001, and on German photography, 2003. He has also led workshops in various countries and says of himself that he is passionate about photography and the arts. He now lives in Berlin. His works have been shown in numerous exhibitions.
Babajide Adeniyi Jones
Babajide Adeniyi Jones
Babajide Adeniyi-Jones was born in Lagos Nigeria in 1952. He has worked as a professional photographer in Europe, Africa and the United States since 1974, with a practice that includes; documentary, industrial and editorial photography.
His work is divided between commissioned assignments usually of development issues and self assigned long-term photographic documentation.
Emeka Okereke
Emeka Okereke
Emeka Okereke born in 1980 is a Nigerian photographer who currently lives and works between Paris, Berlin and Lagos. He came in contact with photography in 2001.He is a member of Depth of Field (DOF) collective, a group made up of six Nigerian photographers. His works mingles between conceptual photography and documentary.
Over the past years, he has worked strictly in black & white, but currently, employs other media (graphics, video, sound, and literature), which makes his artistic practices seem more and more active and dynamic by the day.
His works deal mostly with subjects and issues that involve the society and human relationships.
His major goal is to continuously contribute to humanity through his works.
Another aspect of his practise lies in project organising which promotes cultural exchanges cutting across indigenous and international platforms. In one occasion he commented on his approach saying: “My work as an artist explores the relation between people within the context of homogeneity as well as cultural diversity. As an artist constantly at a crossroad of several cultures, I am convinced that cultural diversity – when well exploited – is of an immense benefit to humanity”.
To this effect he organized the first ever photographic exchange projects between a school in France and one in Nigeria involving the Fine Art School of Paris and Yaba College of Arts and Technology Lagos. He also initiated “Invisible Borders” an annual photographic project which assembles up to 10 Nigerian photographers towards a roadtrip across Africa. There have been two editions of the project since 2009. He is the founder and artistic director of “Creative House” an organization operating locally and internationally, geared towards creating a stable platform for artistic interventions.
In 2003, he won the Best Young Photographer award from the AFAA “Afrique en Création” in the 5thedition of the Bamako Photo Festival of photography. He has a Bachelors/Masters degree from the National Fine Art School of Paris and has exhibited in biennales and art festivals in different cities of the world, notably Lagos, Bamako, Cape Town, London, Berlin, Bayreuth, Frankfurt, Nurnberg, Brussels, Johannesburg, New York, Washington, Barcelona, Seville, Madrid, Paris, etc. He has also won several awards both in Nigeria and Internationally.
Amaize Ojeikere
Amaize Ojeikere
Amaize was born on the 7th of June 1966 in Lagos. After he graduated from higher school in1991and working for about 3years, I decided to pursue a photographic career.
His photographic career has spanned a little over 16years. This has been under the tutelage of his father, J. D ‘Okhai Ojeikere (one of Nigeria’s foremost photographer). In the course of his career, at different times, he has participated in various photographic workshops organized by MR SUNMI SMART—COLE The Goethe Institute, The French Cultural Centre and The British Council (Lagos, Nigeria), Mon. Giles Perrin and Philippe Salaun in Paris, France in 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2003 respectively.
He has also exhibited his works in various photography festival and exhibitions such as Lagos STATandSICHTEN, Berlin and Stuttgart (Ifa gallery),The Unhomely: Seville, Spain; Snap Judgment, New positions in Contemporary African Photography: International Centre for Photography, New York; Depth of field: south London gallery London. Transferts (Brussels, Belgium) Ports de Afrique in 1994, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 respectively and most recently, the Idea of Africa (re-invented), Bern Switzerland 2011. He is a founding member and secretary of Invisible Borders.