The Lagos Portfolio Review (LPR) and Critical Workshop took place between 31 October – 2 November 2022, LPR provided a critical space of exchange and growth for emerging photographers and photo-based artists living and working in Nigeria. Adopting an “open crit” model, the LPR invited each member of the selected group of photographers to present a specific series or aspect of their practice to their peers and a panel of facilitators. The three-day convening provided a crucial opportunity for formal and conceptual development for each participant, preparing them to engage and excel within the global scene of photographic and artist production.

The inaugural edition of LPR was co-organized by the Contemporary and Modern Art Perspectives Africa Group of The Museum of Modern Art (C-MAP Africa, MoMA) and The Nlele Institute (TNI), a Pan-African, autonomous nonprofit organization focusing on lens-based media. LPR was facilitated by Amaize Ojeikere (TNI), Uche Okpa-Iroha (TNI), Oluremi C. Onabanjo (C-MAP Africa, MoMA), and Kunbi Oni (C-MAP Africa, MoMA).

The critical workshop consisted of three sessions: two that are about the artistic process, and one that foregrounds critical and curatorial perspectives. These sessions also allowed an opportunity to take up the key artistic and critical themes featured in MoMA’s exhibition New Photography 2023 (May 28 - September 16, 2023). 

·       Artist’s Session: Itinerant Images by Akinbode Akinbiyi, Logo Oluwamuyiwa, and Yagazie Emezi.

This session spotlight photographers who take life on the street as their subject, engaging its social, poetic, and formal valances. An intergenerational group, Akinbiyi will presented on “Lagos: All Roads” (ca. 1980s-ongoing), Oluwamuyiwa on “Monochrome Lagos” (2013-ongoing), and Emezi on “#EndSARS” (2020).

·       Artist’s Session: Photographic Undercurrents by Amanda Iheme, Abraham Oghobase, Kelani Abass, and Karl Ohiri.

This session presented artists whose works are materially and conceptually informed by the relationship between photography and history. Enfolding the perspectives of those that engage the image at various stages of its “social life,” Amanda Iheme presented on “The Way of Life” (2015-2019), Abraham Oghobase on “Constructed Realities” (2019), Kelani Abass on “Casing History” (ca. 2017-2021), and Karl Ohiri on “The Archive of Becoming” (2015-ongoing).

·       Critical & Curatorial Session: The Substance of the Image by Victor Ehikhamenor, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Uche Okpa-Iroha, and Oluremi C. Onabanjo.

This session brought together a group of critics, curators, and arts administrators engaging contemporary photographic and artistic practices in order to discuss the politics of the image and the infrastructural and conceptual challenges generated by attending to it comprehensively. Case studies included processes of exhibition-making, institution-building, and publication-crafting that engage the position of Lagos through local and the global lenses.

Read more about LPR here