This archive, which is run by the artist, maintains extinct photographic negative
During a trip to Lagos in 2015, Karl Ohairi noticed something worrying. The British Nigerian artist noticed how long the long-term photography studios in the city destroy its archives-sometimes by the way, and sometimes intentionally-where they were closed or moved outside the city to the places of a quieter village. While a generation of photographers turned into digital styles, the film began to disappear literally.
Ohairi was transferred to treat this phenomenon, so he corrected relations with local photographers and began obtaining endangered negatives “in an attempt to ensure that this valuable cultural heritage was lost over time,” he says in a statement. the Lagos Studio archives The project was born.
“The main objectives of the initiative are to collect pictures of a generation of photographers who seized the style, humor and their daily aspirations,” says Bayan. Its mission revolves around highlighting hidden novels otherwise in one of the largest centers of Africa, “while increasing the expansion of dialogues about photography and culture in West Africa, and diaspora scores.”
In addition to his partner, the British Finnish artist Rica Cassinin, Ohairi is imagined as a way to preserve the wealth of history, culture, elegance and daily life in the former Nigeria capital. It was officially organized in 2016, and Archive has developed pictures and displayed internationally in places such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and South London.
“The project has started on the charge of increasing interest that he is on a long time schedule, a vacuum will be created where large sections of Lagosian’s history will be lost and cannot be recovered.” “This void can lead to gaps in acting within the prevailing Nigerian culture, which can have serious repercussions for current and future generations of Nigerians who are trying to gain a deeper understanding of their heritage and culture.”
To date, the archive preserved from more than twenty studios includes thousands of pictures. “Through conversations with
Artists say that photographers from the theal era participated in dialogues that explore the importance of preserving the photography archive as an integral part of the formation of group identity.
Individual practices in Helsinki, Ahiri and Casinene are currently exploring the relationships between living experiences within the contemporary society and socially involved dialogues about heritage and culture. When the husband develops pictures in the group, a distinctive chain and organic topics appear.
Colorful pictures shown here are part of an initiative entitled Archive to become, It focuses on deteriorating negatives, primarily from studio images. As a result of moisture, mold, heat and other elements, images develop in narcotic colors, dissolved emulsions, and empty areas.
“By reviving these pictures of the negatives and displaying them in their new context, the works talk about the sad situation of some of the negatives.” “However, he also talks about a specific beauty that can be found in decomposition expresses the passage of time and an unpredictable life.”
Another group of work focuses on the husband and wife team that was running the pictures of Abi Morocco, which was working between the 1970s and 2006. It seized a wide range of modern pictures in black and white that celebrates an optical narration almost not repeated from Lagos around the twenty -first century.
Ohairi and Casinen describe the archive as an intersection between a project run by artists and a social entity, focusing on “the idea of collective responsibility in preserving heritage and culture as a form of activity that begins with the individual.” Explore more on InstagramWhere you can follow updates about the newly developed exhibitions and images and a coming book focusing on the work of ABI MOROCCO images. (via atheism))
