The Fine Art of Photography; Ima Mfon

In the beginning of the 21^st century, we could count the number of diversified and professional photographers in Nigeria on our fingers. This number has seen some drastic improvement over the years and today, we now have a lot of photographers with different styles, and flourishing in different sectors of the field such as fashion, portrait, and conceptual photography, to mention but a few.

In all the beauty of photography these photographers put out, we would be appreciating all the time, thought, education and resources the conceptual photographer puts into making every project a piece of fine art. Conceptual photography is a type of photography that best illustrates an idea. An example in the earliest staged photographs is Hippolyte Bayard’s self-portrait as a Drowned Man (1840).

The name spotlighted would not be all the popular names in photography, but they would have your eyes nonetheless.

 

Ima Mfon

Who is Ima Mfon?

Ima is a Lagos based editorial and fine art photographer interested in exploring issues of social and

cultural identity. He also spends his time in the U.S. where he received his undergraduate degree

at the University of Texas and, later, a higher degree in digital photography at the School

of Visual Arts, New York.

 

His critically acclaimed project, Nigerian Identity, was featured on CNN and prints from this series

have been shown in several cities including Lagos, New York, San Francisco, Barcelona, and Milan. His

project was also exhibited during Art Basel, at the Miami Pulse Art Fair (2015).

 

Ima also periodically collaborates with Bloomberg, covering stories that showcase less reported

aspects of Nigerian culture, such as the thriving  video game and Nollywood communities in

Lagos. Most recently Ima collaborated with Vice Sports UK, photographing a series of young

football players he encountered on the streets, and interviewing them to understand their

passion for the sport.

 

Ima was a recipient of the 2015  Lensculture Emerging Talents Award and at the esteemed Fotofest

portfolio review (2016)  he received commitments for several solo exhibitions of the Nigerian Identity

series. Ima continues to work out of his home studio in Lagos, and operates under the Instagram handle @Ima_Mfon.

What does photography mean to you?

To me, photography is a form of introspection. Each person produces from the abundance of his or her heart. So, by attempting to understand my mental and emotional processes, I’m able to create work. So, to me, photography is a quest to understand myself better.