LagosPhoto25 has announced its curatorial team to guide the 2025 edition just as the festival transitions into a biennial format.
Under the leadership of founding director Azu Nwagbogu, the team brings together expertise spanning history, architecture, photography, and cultural studies. Their collective vision will guide the festival’s exploration of “Incarceration,” a theme that interrogates both physical confinement and the less visible structures of restriction embedded in contemporary society.
Brooklyn-born, Ghana-rooted curator and artist Robin Riskin takes an interdisciplinary approach to exhibition-making. Influenced by her tenure with blaxTARLINES Kumasi at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), her work merges art, curatorial practice, and production to address infrastructural challenges while fostering cultural innovation.
Kelechi Anabaraonye, a historian specializing in Nigeria’s colonial past and Afro-Brazilian heritage, brings over 15 years of research experience to the team. His work traces the architectural legacies of formerly enslaved returnees, highlighting their impact on Lagos’ urban landscape through photography and archival documentation.
Maria Pia Bernadoni, an expert in contemporary African photography, has played a key role in LagosPhoto’s international presence since 2015. Having co-curated exhibitions at institutions such as Bozar Museum and Les Rencontres d’Arles, she continues to amplify the work of African photographers within global artistic discourse.
Documentary photographer and curator Amelie Koerbs, who works between Ghana and Germany, contributes a feminist perspective to the festival’s curatorial framework. Her practice, rooted in both poetic and documentary photography, examines African image-making histories and representations of women. Her curatorial expertise was honed through collaborations with Nuku Studio and Robin Beth Inc.
Adding to the team’s multidisciplinary strength, Courage Dzidula Kpodo, an architecture graduate and researcher based between Ghana and the US, explores the intersections of built environments, archival material, and cultural transformation. His work emphasizes spatial narratives and their role in shaping identity and memory.
This diverse curatorial lineup equips LagosPhoto 2025 to deliver a thought-provoking program that explores the complexities of incarceration in its many forms. As the festival continues its legacy as a platform for storytelling and socio-political inquiry, its latest edition promises to challenge perceptions and expand the discourse around contemporary visual culture.
