by Kandiss Edwards
October 24, 2025
Most of the photographic artifacts had been discarded, destroyed, or just left to deteriorate.
The Lagos Studio Archives undertaking is working to salvage hundreds of photographic negatives from analog portrait studios throughout Lagos. Most of the artifacts had been discarded, destroyed, or left to deteriorate. Initiated by British-Nigerian artist Karl Ohiri and British artist-curator Riikka Kassinen, the archive seeks to reclaim visible information of on a regular basis life in Lagos from roughly the Seventies till the early 2000s.
The archive now contains supplies from over 20 studios. The portrait sequence showcases Lagosians in vogue, household groupings, celebrations, and on a regular basis moments. The gathering is described as capturing the type, humor, and aspirations of on a regular basis Lagosians in a number of many years.
“I feel within the photographs you may see there was an angle of optimism, a carefree feeling amongst many,” Kassinen advised WePresent.
Ohiri agrees, “You possibly can see that there’s optimism within the air on this transitional interval; western applied sciences and clothes are coming in, there’s ’70s youth tradition, vogue. It was a very vital second in Nigeria’s historical past.”
Ohiri and Kassinen say they started after discovering native photograph studios disposing of their movie databases as digital strategies took over and studios closed down.
“Studio images was very huge in Nigeria within the ’70s—individuals needed to report their lives. After I’d ask these photographers if I may see their archives, they’d say they didn’t have them, some mentioned they’d destroyed them. Lots of them have been burning them, others have been leaving them to deteriorate in humid situations. Of their eyes the work had been carried out, why retailer all of it?” Ohiri advised WePresent.
Having rescued and digitized most of the negatives, the Lagos Studio Archives has curated a number of worldwide exhibitions. The work from one of many studios, Abi Morocco Photographs, operated by John and Funmilayo Abe within the Seventies-2000s, was featured in “Abi Morocco Photographs: Spirit of Lagos“ at Autograph Gallery in London.
The group emphasizes that their goal just isn’t merely to protect images however to engender a collective accountability round images, reminiscence, and heritage.
The undertaking additionally exposes an urgency of preserving Lagos’ analog archives, that are weak to neglect or erasure.
Ohiri emphasised the purpose, stating, “There’s an actual sense of urgency to the work. There are 4 or 5 archives we maintain whose homeowners have handed away since we began the undertaking. When that occurs, the entry to context and data is erased.”
The Lagos Studio Archives undertaking is vital to a bigger discourse about possession and preservation. This deal with rescuing marginalized narratives mirrors the continued reckoning round African artwork and images held in Western museums. Simply because the Lagos Studio Archives brings native voices to the forefront, calls are rising louder for British museums and different international establishments to half with their holdings of African cultural artwork. As conversations about restitution and repatriation escalate, the archival work in Lagos serves as a vivid reminder of the breadth of what has been misplaced—and what could be returned.
RELATED CONTENT: New Sport Invitations Gamers To Liberate Stolen Artifacts From Western Collections
