Osaze Efe is the Executive Director of Arts for Humanity and the Chief Creative Officer for the Abuja Photo Festival. He studied Agriculture at the University of Benin and after school, started work in a photo studio as an administrative officer where he fell in love with photography. He speaks about his love and passion for photography as well as why photography is important to politics.
How far have you gone in fulfilling your goals?
I am a very happy person. I looked at what we have done at the Abuja Photo Festival through Art for Humanity, I looked at the young people we have given opportunities. We have contact almost across Nigeria so people reach out and I give them contact, thereby giving someone a chance to earn some money. Young people had the opportunity to showcase their works in an exhibition. This is the joy that we get from what we do. It is worth the effort. We can say that not less than 4,000 young people had attended the photo festival in the last five years and across different engagement of activities.
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What is photography to you?
Photography is life. We are images. The essence of our being is images. Remember God said let us make man in our own image and in our likeness. Photography is simply light. The art of photography is light. The least of our senses that we would likely not want to lose is our sense of sight. Imagine you wake up and you are not able to see, darkness everywhere. Imagine you don’t recognize colour. Photography is image-making, image creating. Stretch it further, people are most likely to be moved by what they see than what they read or what they hear. What drives social media today is images.
Whether still images or moving images, you and I can’t really tell the impacts of social media in shaping culture, social views, global narratives and at the heart of that is photography, so also is visual storytelling.
In Nigeria, we are still in about one or two per cent or at no level in terms of using pictures to speak to social issues and in terms of using photography as a tool for social advocacy or for commercial purposes. The biggest photographers in Nigeria today are still way behind their international contemporaries.
The more I dive into photography, the more I see that the best of guys in Nigeria, with all the money they’ve made, are still small. No image in Nigeria is sold for $5000 meanwhile there are guys abroad whose images have sold for hundreds of dollars if not millions. Photography in Nigeria is still very much at its infancy stage.
How do we bridge the gap?
By pushing photography knowledge out there, creating photography education besides pockets of workshops that is done. Forget the fact that you go to weddings and ten photographers are ready to take your pictures. Those are snapping, I am talking about photography. A lot of things that are being done is still taking pictures, in the real art of photography, you don’t rush to take a picture. There are spontaneous moments but to make a real picture you need to have a point of view. You need to have a story to tell and the lens becomes a means through which you tell the story. Even if you are doing a wedding, you are telling the story of love, you are not just taking pictures. If you are doing a portrait, you are telling a personal brand story or if it is a family photo you are telling a united family story. People should be able to see your photographs and connect with the essence of that person. As a photographer, your images speak. You look for what is not seen and bring it out.
That is what photography is all about, so if you are doing street photography, documentary, photojournalism, your point of view is around a particular agenda; that is what these things are all about. It is about pushing an agenda. It is about pushing a particular worldview or propaganda as the case may be. We will bridge that gap by continuous photography education, not only for photographers but for the general public because for the public to be able to appreciate photography, they need to understand how to read a photograph. If I give you a book written in French you won’t appreciate it because you don’t know how to read French but if I give you a book in English you will be able to appreciate it because you know how to read English.
Artist appreciation begins with public education on how to read images. Images are like letters that are written, you have to write it in a language that the viewer would understand then the viewer reads it having had the understanding of how to read what you’ve written, then communication happens. It is nebulous because sometimes images are subject to the viewers’ perspectives. We all come with our biases, we may both perceive an image and have different meanings to it. Also, an image can be made based on the bias of the photographer. Photographs themselves do not lie but the maker of the picture may be telling a lie because of the agenda he is trying to project. A photograph is a product of the point of view of a photographer.
Do photographers have a role to play in the unity of Nigeria?
Very well, but the photographer will have to believe in the unity of Nigeria. Except he is commissioned to tell a particular narrative, he may not believe in the unity of Nigeria but because he is paid to talk about the unity of Nigeria, he has to do the bidding of his paymaster. But if money was not a factor and honesty was on the table, the photographer has to speak to the common good of humanity. He is morally bound to speak to the common good of society.
What are the roles of photographs in politics?
It has a lot to play. Still images are nebulous, unlike video. There was a time along Abuja streets, the photograph of a former national chairman of a political party was manipulated. It was an embarrassing photo but I know that that was a head on another body to push a particular narrative. It is so strong that such a photo could be spun to fuel several issues and questions. That is what art does. Art points to a direction and asks others to follow. It is worse if it was a video because the video is real-time.
Photographs have roles to play in next year’s election. People will dig out images, videos where people were making speeches, and in some places use them either for or against their preferred candidate or non-preferred candidate. So, a lot is on the table when we talk about photography in relation to next year’s election.
Are photographers willing to learn something new, especially when everybody is a photographer?
The fact that I play street football does not make me a footballer. The fact that I can sing does not make me a musician. The fact that I can write an article publish it in a newspaper does not make me a journalist. So, we must be able to interrogate the meaning of what a photographer means. A lot of people can take pictures. I am beginning to question if I am a photographer in the real sense because of what I studied. It is not just how to take a picture but how to use a picture that really makes a photographer. I may walk into a shop, purchase a camera and take pictures but that does not make me a photographer. What is your understanding of the principles of the camera beyond just pressing the shutter speed? What does your image speak to? Images must speak, woe betide that writer that just writes for writing’s sake. A book must have a message. You have to have a point of view.
As photographers, our roles are to push narratives. How are we learning in that direction? It is not just about taking a picture of a particular location and I am paid and come back home. What I am going to create is how does it help this person’s business? I educate myself to see how what I do creates value beyond just me and my part to create value for humanity. Photographers should read, educate themselves, attend intellectual workshops, not just technical workshops. They should know about politics, religion. You have to have a broader understanding of religion, politics, family unity, economics, branding for business for your images to now fit into those bigger narratives. When I see people with cameras that don’t read, listen to the news to improve themselves, I just laugh and say they are there for the hustle.
Economic realities and opportunities have forced a lot of people to pick up the camera.
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