Personally, I’ve known Ofem Ubi from the days of ‘Dear Eve’ and watching his growth process has been incredible and when he started photography last year, greatness was immediately expected. Sitting with B.O.P, He talks his introduction to photography, exploring the art and his foresight for the Nigerian Imaging Industry.
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- Kindly Introduce Yourself
I am Ofem Ubi, a poet and documentary photographer, the rest is underway.
- How was growing up like?
For one who grew up in transit, growing up was beautiful but at same time taunting, you learn to grasp your little chances at happiness, cage it like a bird and pray it never dissolves into a memory, enjoy your bad days and pray you witness less of it. It was a repeat process of living with different families and understanding how they operate, also finding various mechanisms to survive, only to be uprooted to a whole new one when you’re fully adapted. It shows you the different faces of life, people and prepares you for the unforeseen as well; you grow tough skin for a lot of things, of which you never realize at the time, I mean you’re too busy growing up to understand anything else. But all these experiences are what makes me; Me.
- What’s your educational background?
I’m a graduate from the Department of Mass Communication, Cross River University of Technology, Cross River State.
- How did you start Photography?
Ample friends of mine are photographers; they’d always loved the language of images and the power they evoked. Together, some of us attended the Peter Bello Photography Master Class in Calabar, way back in 2016. That was my proper entry point into photography, I’d already began poetry by then (my “thy” and “thou” days). As a consistent writer that I was, I’d always make posts of my poems on my social platforms, but I did made these postings with people’s images and not mine, which sometimes led to taking them down or not finding an image that adequately explained the poem’s emotion. Moving on, I began to work under Yard 33 Creative Art Space, a fantastic media outlet owned by Otome Onoge, an outstanding photographer. Working with her was my immersion; I got to learn a lot of things, the eye for detail, the extra touch that makes an image, an “image”. I also got to learn about other unique photographers, photographs and then the need to tell my stories with my own pictures arose like a wildfire. So it was, until 2019’s August when I was gifted a Canon 1300D by a brother, then and there did my journey fully begin.
- Was it just a hobby or did you from the onset want to take it as a career?
I think I’d always seen it as a longtime thing because it was a desire birthed though poetry, and because I see poetry as a career, anything that helps sustain and develop it for me is a career as well.
- What type of Photography do you do?
Presently I’m focused on documentaries, I like the candidness of life, the reportage of time and events as they are. I’m certain my interest will spread to other branches but we take flight from here first, documentary.
- Where/Who do you draw your inspiration from?
Where is any and everything. For documentary, inspiration never gives us heads up before its arrival because events are transient. I think the goal is to be ready at all times. But then we’re inspired by everything; beauty, pain, life, politics, even the most minute of things e.t.c
Who, my first inspiration was from Lexonart, I used a lot of his images for my poetry, I even did series out of them as well. And then Otome Onoge, Jolade Olusanya, Umitsavaci, Sean Tucker, Nkosiart, Ms.rafiki, Ufana Ishoyor, Sophiekietzmann, Delfinacarmona, Maximushka, noma.o, Oghalealex, Bern Ushie and the list streams on.
- So far what has been your highest point as a photographer and how is the Business of Photography like?
My highest point apart from my boss’s admiration for my images, would be this interview. For the best years of my art, I’ve been known as a poet (my first and foremost), adding photography to the list of craft-set and pondering about its acceptability was a bit of a personal struggle, there was the fear of being two faced or people identifying with you more when you’re mono-artistic. But having this interview is proof that you can be everything you want to be if you want to be everything you want to be, just churn out great content and the people will stay arms open for you.
Business wise, it hasn’t been a smooth ride. There’s an already crawling flow of jobs, I literally can still count my paid jobs, but we hope for the best in all of these.
- What challenges do you face and what steps do you take in overcoming these challenges?
As currently invested in documentaries, people see documentary photographers as intruders per say, so there’s the constant harsh reaction you encounter when caught taking photographs on the street, of people or even any random thing. There’s the premeditated idea of rituals, espionage and all. Because these images are transient, there’s almost no time to allay their fears, you’re sometimes too lost in the image you’re seeing, to even think of your immediate environment.
I’m learning to be friends first before anything else, to assimilate myself with the space I find myself in, when trust is built, every other thing I think, is done on that foundation, so long it doesn’t get broken.
- In the Coming Years, where do you see the photography in Nigeria?
Everyday there’s the rise of new talents, in all nooks and crannies of the countries. Amazing works are being created and it’s setting up a platform for healthy competition as well a warning to the big shots, seat belts need to be tightened because the new voices want to be seen and heard, and from the look of things there’s no stopping them, they’re literally creating visual havens with the least of resources at their disposal and that, that is commendable.
I envision a future of sold out exhibitions, a future of images that tell not just the present but foresee the incoming as well.
But also, as a male dominated industry, I hope that more females get inducted because an industry with single gendered visual point of views isn’t weighing well on the balance. We need more females and then a fair share of respect and wages for the females already in the industry.
- Any last words?
E go be!!!
Ofem Ubi is an Award-Winning Poet, an upcoming Photographer and an all round creative. To connect with him on Instagram, click here.
