The African Artists’ Foundation, a non-profit organization and art space based in Lagos, Nigeria announces the new expansion and curatorial vision for the 14th edition of LagosPhoto Festival, an international photography festival taking place from the 28th of October until the 31st of December 31, 2023.
A single picture speaks a thousand word. It has the capacity to influence someone’s thinking and prompt action. Beyond the equipment and the tips and tactics, photography has always been, in its most basic form, a silent recorder of people. The art and science of photography has been able to capture everything, from singular moments that depict urban metropolis life to significant historical moments, to acts of individual bravery and daring, desperation, love, and happiness.
In the past two decades the post-truth period has advanced significantly encouraging more and more tribal and sectarian cultures, with photography playing a big part. From the dystopian post-covid reality, we have progressed into the age of warfare, violence, and the seemingly impossible. The destruction of the environment is currently quantified at increasing amounts. Temperatures are rising, and water conflicts that have been predicted for a long time are now a reality as a result of centuries of extractive history. As society reaches a Ground State, where everything humanity knows as ‘common sense’ no longer applies, there is an urge to restore, repair and restitute the mysteries of oral histories and aspects vital for survival.
The 14th edition of the international LagosPhoto festival, curated by AAF’s founder and director Azu Nwagbogu and East Wing Artistic Director Peggy Sue Amison (Dubai, UAE), will promote a fellowship of dynamic spiritual change and rebirth of the unimaginable through the theme “Ground State – Fellowship Within the Uncanny.”
This year’s theme, ‘Ground State – Fellowship Within the Uncanny’ will bring together photographic works exploring the present moment and envisioning repair, syncopation, putrefaction, restitution, and restoration. This year’s edition marks the first time the event will be held beyond Lagos. This expansive gives a larger audience the opportunity to interact with the creations of gifted photographers, challenging our own participation in a desire culture based on consumption.
The festival recently announced an open call for emerging and established artists working with lens-based media to submit their projects- one that fits the theme- with a submission deadline of June 7, 2023. In addition, the festival announced a separate open call for submissions for a portfolio review, with a deadline of June 30, 2023. Selected photographers will have the chance to take part in sessions with esteemed judges and panelists during the festival, including top gallerists, publishers, educators, and specialists from LagosPhoto Festival partner National Geographic.
For its 2023 edition LagosPhoto Festival invites artists to showcase new perspectives of humanity’s revival and equilibrium through hopeful visions of social, political, environment and spiritual change.
Launched in 2010, LagosPhoto is the first international arts festival of photography in Nigeria. In a month-long series of events, the festival include exhibitions, workshops, artist presentations, discussions, and large scale outdoor prints, displayed throughout the city with the aim of reclaiming public spaces and engaging the general public with multifaceted stories of Africa. LagosPhoto aims to establish a community for contemporary photography which will unite local and international artists through images that encapsulate individual experiences and identities from across all of Africa. LagosPhoto presents and educates it’s global audiences about how photography is used as a tool to explore historical and contemporary issues, share cultural practices, and promote social programmes.
