For three months, Dayo Adedayo traversed the length and breadth of Lagos with a camera, one mission uppermost in his mind - to erase the negative stereotypes usually associated with the city by capturing her scenic beauty like it has never been done before.
“I want people to see the other side of Lagos. I’ve seen the gutters, I’ve seen all the thrash, but nobody has seen the beauty. So from the businessman point of view, if you can show the good parts of Lagos state, one cannot dispute it, they are there and are not made up,” said Mr. Adedayo, a United Kingdom-trained photographer.
Rebranding Lagos
In showing the good parts of Lagos in his photo album, the sights that Mr. Adedayo tried to capture both at night and during the day were as breathtaking as they were enlightening; each photograph in the collection came with a brief history of the picture.
“We don’t value the beauty around us,” he said. “There are too many beautiful things and all I want people to see is my city the way I see it. Those are the things I want to see because at the end of the day, you cannot satisfy the whole world,” he added. The 279 page photo album, the first part in a two volume series hopes to ignore every other facet of the city and accentuate only the beauty.
“If you google Lagos on the internet today, the images that will be thrown up will all be complete thrash whereas it is not a thrash place, and that is what I’m trying to do,” he said. “Fingers are not equal, and there is no way we are all going to be put on an equal footing.” “It’s like I’m fighting back. Don’t tell me this is my city when I know it’s not mine. You don’t go out to get things like this in Europe and North America and you will be seeing junk. It just doesn’t happen. They don’t do it. I’ve never seen one. They might do it for exhibition, but not for print. So why are we doing ourselves damages and saying this is us. You see people fighting...” he added.
“Basically, it’s just to change perception that, yes, we are coming from there but this is where we are now and tomorrow it’s going to be better.”
Meeting the city
Mr. Adedayo’s quest to capture the beauty of Lagos, including the historical elements, took him across the entire five divisions and 57 local councils of the state. “Logistically, it was quite difficult for me to get from one point to the other because of traffic,” said Mr. Adedayo, who is in his late 40s.
“But I was there (the five divisions) to see what they have on ground. Lagos is actually very small. From the sea, land, and the air, that was what I did on Lagos state. When you are in the air, Lagos is beautiful.” Incidentally, getting around the city formed the most difficult part of his three month project and he spent extra seven months on editing, printing, and putting finishing touches on album.
“The people of Lagos are very friendly,” Mr. Adedayo said of the different people he encountered in the course of his project. “Once they see you with your camera, boys will come out because a lot of people are jobless. They will come out, ‘Oga I can take you there, I can do this I can do that.’ You give them some money, everybody is happy and that’s it.”
Having spent his early years of his childhood in Mushin after returning from the UK in the 60s, the photogragher said that the beauty that was associated with the Lagos of those days, which was comparable with anywhere else is what he hoped to recreate. “I grew up in Mushin, it wasn’t this bad. Idi Oro, 30 years ago was lot better than the VI (Victoria Island) of today. VI and Ikoyi, 30 years ago were better than Hyde Park, the most expensive area in London today. But one way or the other, we’ve lost it but we can get these things back,” he said.
“I just want people to see the good side of where I am from. They know we have our challenges, they even know more than us. And we tend not to believe in ourselves anymore. So that’s what I’m trying to do, the good, the better, the best. That’s what I’m looking for.”
For one who fell in love with photography at 18 and whose works have managed to adorn the presidential lounge at the Abuja International airport as well as the country’s electronic passports; Mr. Adedayo said he hopes to achieve immortality through photography. “It’s not about the money. It’s about outliving your work. You hear my name, and the next thing you will hear is photography.”
Source:234next
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