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LagosPhoto
Festival 2023

Welcome

Oct 27 -
Dec 31 2023

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LagosPhoto Overview

 

LagosPhoto 2023

LagosPhoto Festival is excited to present the launch of the 14th edition on

OCTOBER 25TH - DECEMBER 31ST 2023

CLICK HERE FOR PRESS RELEASE

Launched in 2010, LagosPhoto is an international photography festival presented in Nigeria. In a month long festival, events include exhibitions, workshops, artist presentations, discussions and large scale outdoor prints displayed throughout the city with the aim of reclaiming public spaces and engaging the general public with multifaceted stories of Africa. LagosPhoto aims to establish a community for contemporary photography which will unite local and international artists through images that encapsulate individual experiences and identities from across all of Africa. LagosPhoto presents and educates about photography as it is embodied in the exploration of historical and contemporary issues, the sharing of cultural practices, and the promotion of social programmes. 

LagosPhoto23

LagosPhoto Festival returns with its 14th edition in the fall of 2023 with the theme, Ground State – fellowship within the uncanny.  

This year’s theme; Ground State – fellowship within the uncanny seeks to explore the present moment and envision ways to restore, repair and restitute the mysteries of histories that are crucial for our survival.  

Photography has always held the power of mystery to it; the malaise, reordering, syncopation and entropy of the twenty-first century presents all sorts of possibilities and anxieties. The past two decades progressed the era of post-truth that encouraged increasingly sectarian and tribal societies with photography playing a significant role. We have evolved from the dystopian post covid reality into the era of conflict, war, of the limitless and improbable. The environment is now measured in growing levels of devastation. Centuries of an extractive history has left indelible consequences: temperatures rise, long forewarned water wars are a reality. The “Doomsday Clock” inches forward in seconds to an apocalyptic midnight. Recalcitrant colonial mindsets continue to judge worth through an impossible hierarchy. Efforts to imagine futures, decolonise, activate and recycle have ended up with reformulated hierarchies with the same output but with different players. We are racing to a breaking point; a Ground State, where everything humanity understands and identifies as “common sense” is neither. How do we restore, repair, and restitute mysteries of oral histories and aspects that are necessary for our survival.  

Populations will turn to artists to make sense of what has been referred to as a “catastrophic era”. Lagos Photo Festival seeks projects that explore the present moment and envision how repair, syncopation, putrefaction, restitution, and restoration will take place; challenging our own complicity in a culture of desire, founded on consumption and how to foster a fellowship of dynamic spiritual change, a rebirthing of the unimaginable. 

This year's edition marks the first time in its history that the event will be held beyond Lagos, extending to Cotonou, Ouidah, and Port-Novo in Benin. This geographical expansion offers a wider audience the opportunity to engage with the powerful works of talented photographers, challenging our own complicity in a culture of desire founded on consumption.

Join us as we begin the countdown to Lagos Photo Festival 2023 “Ground State Fellowship Within The Uncanny”. October 25th – December 31st, 2023. 

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2023 Photographers

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Aïsso Eliane

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Adrian L. Burrell

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Amina Kadous

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Arko Datto

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Candela Paniagua

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Carlos Idun-Tawiah

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Chris Iduma

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Derik Lynch & Matthew Thorne

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Eugenia Lim

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Federico Estol

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Fikayo Adebajo

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

GLORIA OYARZABAL

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Gohar Dashti and Hamed Noori

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Isadora Romero

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Ishola Akpo

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Jon Henry

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Laeïla Adjovi

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Louis Oke-Agbo

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

M'hammed Kilito

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Maheder Haileselassie

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Maija Tammi

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Minne Atairu

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Phillip Toledano

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Poulomi Basu and CJ Clarke

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Prince Charles Uhunoma

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Raquel van Haver

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Raul Jorge Gourgel

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Sophie Négrier

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Tobi Onabolu

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Wesaam Al-Badry

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PHOTOGRAPHER:

Zora J Murff

Curator’s Statement

LagosPhoto23

LagosPhoto Festival returns with its 14th edition in the fall of 2023 with the theme, Ground State – fellowship within the uncanny.  

This year’s theme; Ground State – fellowship within the uncanny seeks to explore the present moment and envision ways to restore, repair and restitute the mysteries of histories that are crucial for our survival.  

Photography has always held the power of mystery to it; the malaise, reordering, syncopation and entropy of the twenty-first century presents all sorts of possibilities and anxieties. The past two decades progressed the era of post-truth that encouraged increasingly sectarian and tribal societies with photography playing a significant role. We have evolved from the dystopian post covid reality into the era of conflict, war, of the limitless and improbable. The environment is now measured in growing levels of devastation. Centuries of an extractive history has left indelible consequences: temperatures rise, long forewarned water wars are a reality. The “Doomsday Clock” inches forward in seconds to an apocalyptic midnight. Recalcitrant colonial mindsets continue to judge worth through an impossible hierarchy. Efforts to imagine futures, decolonise, activate and recycle have ended up with reformulated hierarchies with the same output but with different players. We are racing to a breaking point; a Ground State, where everything humanity understands and identifies as “common sense” is neither. How do we restore, repair, and restitute mysteries of oral histories and aspects that are necessary for our survival.  

Populations will turn to artists to make sense of what has been referred to as a “catastrophic era”. Lagos Photo Festival seeks projects that explore the present moment and envision how repair, syncopation, putrefaction, restitution, and restoration will take place; challenging our own complicity in a culture of desire, founded on consumption and how to foster a fellowship of dynamic spiritual change, a rebirthing of the unimaginable. 

This year's edition marks the first time in its history that the event will be held beyond Lagos, extending to Cotonou, Ouidah, and Port-Novo in Benin. This geographical expansion offers a wider audience the opportunity to engage with the powerful works of talented photographers, challenging our own complicity in a culture of desire founded on consumption.