My entrance into the world of photography was driven more by necessity than by love. In 2010, I struggled to find adequate stock imagery of Afro-centric people for my graphic design projects. It was frustrating either to find the right visuals that matched the ideas I envisioned or to discover that the ones that seemed perfect had already been used by almost everyone. I learned photography as a way to gain control over the visuals I needed to create. Little did I know that years later, it would become a central piece of my creative endeavors. One challenge seemed to lead to another, eventually bringing me to this point.
As I began, I quickly realized that shooting was only part of the process. I needed to learn how to color grade and edit the images I shot. I watched hours of tutorials online, but I just couldn’t get it right. I was never satisfied with how the colors looked, except when shooting scenery. Whenever I photographed people, I’d turn off the color because it felt safer. After a while, I quit photographing people altogether and focused on capturing places and things.
In 2012, my friend TY Bello, who was the president’s photographer at the time, needed help with some sensitive photo edits that had to be completed quickly. She took me through a crash course. After five days of editing images of governors and ministers with her, I felt a bit more confident about venturing into human photography. Even though I started taking photos of people again after this, I still kept the colors turned off. However, I realized there was something different. I couldn’t quite explain it. I grew bolder and began experimenting with lighting to see how dramatic I could make the images look. The more I experimented, the more I fell in love with black and white photography.
My new lighting techniques combined with black and white photography brought out the soul of my subjects. It extended the life of the moment. Simply by looking at the images, one could interpret the emotions they evoked. A few people have come to me with their minds full of dreams, and when I photographed them, they could see their future selves. It became more than photography; it became therapy for many of my clients and subjects. I cannot count how many people have shed tears, laughed, or stared in silence. It has been such a beautiful experience so far, and as I began to add patterns and motifs to augment these images, I realized how captivating they were and how they told profound stories.
This year, as I celebrate World Photography Day, I am reminded of how important it is to trust the process, follow our hearts, and experiment with what we see within. I am also reminded of how powerful everyone’s story is. Cheers to five years of telling stories in Black and White.
