I attended a photojournalism training recently and
it was an eye opener for me. I love
photographs and unlike lots of other people my favorite social media platform
is Instagram. It’s simple and straight
to the point. The pictures say
everything. Although I knew this, it was
Maggie Steber, the trainer, who articulated this idea. Photographs tell stories and capture a piece
of history. I remember pictures of my
mum taken in the seventies in which she was wearing a mini dress and afro
hairdo and another one in which she wore an “oleku” which incidentally made a resurgence
some few years back. So I do see how
photographs relate to history.
The power of photography is in the fact that it’s a
universal language. A photograph doesn’t
need translation. Whether it’s a wedding
photo of a Chinese couple or the picture of a new born baby in the arms of its
mother in Ecuador or two street boys fighting in Lagos, it’s instantly
understood. That’s why I love Instagram
so much; not many words, just pictures.
Another thing I discovered during the training is
that photography is hard work. It
involves going the extra mile. You may have to walk for miles to find that
perfect shot which captures the essence of the story you’re trying to
tell. It also involves taking postures
that people might regard as undignified in order to get a particular shot. One has to be passionate about this work, if
you are going to be successful. Fortunately, I saw a lot of this passion in the
photojournalists who participated in the training and in the beautiful pictures
they shared with the group.
Good human relations are also important to the success
of a photographer. Maggie explained that
if you’re genuinely interested in the people you photograph, you’ll take better
pictures. She exemplified this fact in
the time and effort she put into her work in Haiti, getting to know and love
the people on that Caribbean island.
This interest led to a project in which she and some of her friends
convinced young Haitians to take pictures of their country. The pictures were featured in National
Geographic Magazine under the title “Haiti on its own terms.” The young photographers wanted to show the
world that their country should not be defined entirely by its natural disasters
and poverty. There is also a great deal of beauty there. She encouraged the Nigerian photographers to
do the same thing because unfortunately, the image that many people in the West
have of Nigeria is largely negative.
Herein lies the power of photography.
It can express beauty in a way that words cannot and begin to change
some of the misconceptions about Nigeria and its people.
I also learned that Photoshop is great! The first time that I saw the impact of
Photoshop was when I viewed my wedding pictures. I did not recognize myself! Maggie told the journalists to use it to make
their pictures richer and I support this wholeheartedly.
At the end of the training, the participants, all
professional photojournalists, were excited about the experience and wanted to
learn even more. Even those of us who
aren’t professionals left with a new way of looking at pictures and were thankful
to the inventors of modern photography.
This entry also appears on the U.S. Mission Nigeria publication on medium.com
