Photography is more than just taking pictures; it is a lens through which a person can view the world as it is. Many photographers do this in various ways: capturing the fun and emotional moments at a wedding, the colourful display of wealth at a festival, or even the aesthetic photos of the photographer’s surroundings.
In this week’s #MCNWorkLife, Rachel Seidu, who describes herself as a visual artist and storyteller, believes that her best way to tell stories and preserve moments is through documentary photography. It is a style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects, and events and is often used in reportage. In this article, she tells us about her motivations, journey, and her love for capturing the world as it truly is.
Without telling me about your work, who is Rachel Seidu?
Outside photography, I don’t do so much. I like to sleep, and I usually stay in my house. I love my space to the extent that I hardly ever come out of my bedroom, and I love my friends. However, I can’t say I can take photography out of this description because I greatly like photography, even when I am not working. I like to look at other people’s works and read interviews about them. I also love watching adult cartoons. Photography takes more than 70% of my life more than anything else. I am a huge fan of the art.
What was your childhood dream job, and how did this translate into your current phase of work?
The funniest thing is that photography was never on the cards for me growing up. I wanted to be an accountant because my mum wanted it, but as I grew older, I realised I was no longer interested in it. Then, I wanted to be a musician because I was a good drummer in the school assembly, and then I learned how to play the keyboard in church. I was also a talented child actor, acting in all the plays in school, and I led the church’s drama team by the time I was 14. I will still enjoy doing those things if the opportunity presents itself, but I am not doing them actively
Due to my desire to become an actor at the time, I applied for a theatre arts degree at the University of Benin (UNIBEN). However, I didn’t get a theatre education. I got a fine arts education instead. I think this changed the trajectory of my life. At first, my friend and I plotted to sneak into some of the Theatre Arts classes, as I felt the lecturer couldn’t tell who his students were and who wasn’t. But our course was so demanding that we never had the chance to do that, and with time, I grew to love Fine Arts. Already, I was used to drawing a lot as a child, and I did everyone’s drawing assignments. There was a time when I was interested in painting, and my mother bought me watercolours and made customised shirts for my friends. Even when I received the news that I would be studying Fine Arts, my mother wasn’t bothered because she already knew of my artistic prowess.
I grew to enjoy the arts, but only briefly because I found photography. I found it before I resumed university in 2017 at a Redeemed Church branch in Opebi, where most of my friends attended. Once in a while, I attended my friends’ Redeemed branch so that I could play with them. The church had a festival called “Festival of Light,” where each teenager volunteered for various departments. I volunteered for photography, and they gave us the camera and showed us how to click the shutter. Then they asked me to take a few pictures of the church, and when I came back, they were impressed with what I had taken. After the festival, I proudly told everyone that I was now a professional photographer and had done my “training,” even though all I knew was how to click the shutter.
That event sparked my interest, and I started taking pictures of my friends with my phone. I still have some of those pictures, and my tagline then was “Hadiza Photography.” In December of the same year, I met one of my friends who had a camera and requested to borrow it to shoot my surroundings. He charged me N1K for borrowing, and I paid him. But I didn’t know what to press, so I met one of those “instant photographers,” and he helped me set it up. I took many photos that day, even of the football match, and edited everything on Google Photos. But then I gained admission and didn’t think about photography for a while.
In the second semester of university in 2018, after my fellowship service, I noticed that one of my friends looked pretty, and I offered to photograph her. She was so impressed and encouraged me to pick up photography again. I started taking photos on campus, and soon, word spread about my photography skills. I started charging N500 for birthday photos. That’s how the journey started up until this moment.
What an interesting trajectory! When did you start to take up photography full-time?
It was around the same year. One of my friends, Chidinma Nnoli, who was an artist, encouraged me to open an Instagram account to share my photos. Then, I changed my tagline from “Hadiza Photography” to “Static Imagery.” I had that tagline for two years; then, an older photographer advised me to use my actual name, as it would help if my brand felt more personal.
I continued taking pictures of friends at university, and sometimes, I went on photo walks. I decided to make it a team effort with my friends, with a banner and everything, and soon, I was no longer alone in the photo walks. My friends and I went on these photo walks and took pictures across Benin, Edo State. Some of the popular photographers in Benen even joined those walks. It was nice.
In 2020, I was able to buy my first laptop because Chidinma shared my work on her story, and a collector saw my work and loved it. Somehow, he reached out to me and ended up paying for a laptop for me, and I was so happy because my initial intention was to sell some of my work to buy one. At first, they wanted to give me the laptop as payment for my work, but when they found out I was a girl after I posted the laptop, they decided to also pay for the work separately.
I got another call from that same collector again, and it was like he wanted me to document the effect of COVID-19 in Benin City, and they would pay me one thousand dollars. He sent me half of it at first. I added that to what I had and paid for a laptop, lens, camera bag, and camera. I was so grateful because I did not think I’d be able to do all of that while still in school, so it was a big miracle for me. So I started taking pictures with my camera.
Relay Bootcamp opened, and Chidinma sent it to me to apply. I was like, I don’t think my work is there yet, but she told me to apply anyway, and I got selected for the boot camp. The boot camp was virtual. They told us they would select just 11 people, and those 11 people would go into a residence in Ekiti and have to create work. Then, select five eventually. I believed there was no way they would pick me because there were many good artists, but I got selected for the first 11. I went to Ekiti and eventually made it to the final six, and we had this exhibition in Lagos, which spurred my art career.
Most of your photography is done in black and white. What was the motivation behind that?
In 2018, when I started photography again, I tried black and white one time, and I liked it. So, I decided to do more of it and stuck with it. Although I dare say I’m also good at colour, the black-and-white filter is special to me. I feel photographs that are in black and white more than I do those in colour, even when they are not my work. I think black and white is much more intense than colour because, in black and white, you’re not influenced by the colours you see to have an emotional response, so it’s more genuine. However, I will lean away for a bit because some older photographers who shot in black and white say it might be harder for me to stand out.
I’m not trying to stand out because I believe my work will always stand out, no matter how similar it looks to others, but I understand that this is needed for career advancement. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop it totally, but I will do more colour, and luckily for me, I’m not even horrible at it, so it’s a win-win situation.
Who inspires your work, and how do they influence your style?
The people who inspire my work are James Barnor, Gordon Parks, Vivienne Mayer, and Seydou Keita. They’re old photographers; I haven’t found contemporary photographers with better work. I am very inspired by the fact that they could do so much with limited gear (compared to what we have) yet create work that most of us are still aspiring towards.
But I also love a few contemporary photographers, including Daniel Bassey and Tyler, a UK photographer. Bettina Pittaluga as well, but they do not influence my work; I’m just a big fan of their work. Yagazie Emezi and Etinosa Yvonne also inspire me, and I’m inspired by many people, not necessarily because of their work but because of their journey. Most of them didn’t start from a place of privilege, and they are doing big things today. They’re doing awesome in Nigeria, so their lives inspire me. It makes me know that my goals are things that I can achieve as long as I keep working hard.
Are there any specific themes or subjects you find yourself drawn to in your photography?
Yes. and most important to me is documenting queer stories. I believe it is very important because Burna Boy said, “Without evidence, you go explain tire.” Without proof that queer people were here, it will still be the same old story that queer people were not accepted in our culture. Imagine if we had a lot of pictures of queer people in Nigeria from before the white man came. Imagine if we had all of this documented over the years; people wouldn’t be able to say it’s a Western thing.
I see it as a responsibility to photograph queer people because it’s going to be evidence for the future. That’s the most important thing to me and the most important story I want to tell.
Tell me about the “Boys Will Be Boys” photography project.
It’s a personal project centred around masculinity in non-men. It’s about masculine-presenting people, including masculine-presenting women, trans-masculine people, and anybody who’s masculine but not a heterosexual man. It’s a project close to my heart because I’m also a masculine-presenting person. It’s about my experiences and friends who are masculine-presenting people in Nigeria and around the world.
People call you a tomboy and expect you to grow out of it at some point, but I’m 27 years old now. I still don’t find myself drawn to dresses, and I do not want to wear a skirt. We go through a lot of bullying from people, like when I was complaining of period pain in the hostel, and my roommate said, “You dey see period, I think say you be man.”
I was dumbfounded. It’s like you’re an anomaly in society because people expect femininity from women, and when you do not abide by this, it becomes a problem for them. Another example was this evening when I was returning from a party with my friends, and my other friend in the car was a trans-masculine.
The police stopped us and asked if they were a man or woman, and I said, “What does that matter?” Then he asked everyone to come out of the car because, according to him, I was being disrespectful. He searched all our bags, and when he could not find anything incriminating, he resorted to insults about how nobody would marry me, and I matched his energy with more insults.
These and many more are the things you go through as a masculine-presenting person. Even my mother asks if I don’t have any dresses, and I tell her I don’t. I’m more privileged now because I make my own money, so my mother cannot essentially tell me what to do, but I vividly remember a time when she slapped me for wearing shorts.
So it’s the same way everybody in society is averse to masculine-presenting people. It’s not talked about enough, and that’s what I aim to do with this project.
As a masculine-presenting woman, what’s the biggest misconception or stereotype people have about you in terms of your sexuality?
That I am gay. What if I’m not gay? How about that? Some masculine presenting people are not queer. I don’t have a problem with being queer—don’t just assume that I’m gay. When I was in school, many people thought I was a lesbian.
Let’s move to challenges and wins. What challenges do you face as a photographer, particularly regarding representation and visibility? What wins have you gotten in your career as a photographer so far?
I do not see challenges. I see everything as a stepping stone to get ahead. Nobody said the journey would be easy, but I’m prepared for anything. It might sound very cheesy, but I’m serious. They say men dominate the photography industry, but I believe if more women pick up the camera and photograph and become good at it, then the industry will have no choice but to give us more opportunities. When you can’t deny that women are good, there will be no excuse not to give us opportunities. So, speaking for myself, there are no obstacles.
For the wins, I’ve been lucky enough to do a few nice things. I collaborated with YSL; I had an exhibition in two of their major stores, one in Paris and the other in Los Angeles, and we made fanzines, and I got paid as well. I just completed an art residency in France, and there will be an exhibition in October. I am also privileged to get jobs from great publications. This year, I’ve worked with Marie Claire, Art Basel, Water Aid UK, and the New York Times Style. There’s a lot I’ve done in this short while, and I’m grateful to God for bringing the opportunities and to myself for being consistent in what I do.
Can you advise emerging photographers looking to make a name for themselves?
One of my favourite photographers, Mayor Otu, would say, “Shoot what you want to be hired for.” It’s what the client sees that makes them hire you. I started as a street photographer, taking pictures of my friends and the streets, but even the birthday shoots I did for my friends had a documentary feel. Documentary photography appeals more to me because of its storytelling nature, and that’s why I started getting documentary jobs.
Also, please don’t be afraid to reach out to older colleagues. I’ve never been afraid to ask for anything. I probably would not be where I am today if I did not ask for help. When I got into photography, I searched for photography hangouts in Lagos and attended every single one, even though I was shooting with a Techno phone. The people at these hangouts were big shots, but I approached them and asked them to look at my work and tell me what to do differently, and some of them advised me.
One time, I sent an email to Yagazie Emezi to review my work, and she responded that she liked my work but that I should add more colour because if clients were going to hire me, they would like to see different varieties in my work. That was in 2020; she doesn’t even remember now when I tell her.
I worked with August Udoh for a bit. I assisted with carrying the light. This happened because I approached him at a photography hangout and told him I liked his work and wanted to assist him, and he agreed. It’s not a flex to say you don’t ask for help; that got me here.
This past week, I spoke with an older photographer about my doubts about my work. She gave me such resounding advice that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own, and it made sense.
Finally, be consistent. Shoot everything. The more you shoot, the stronger your eyes get, you see better, and you learn different ways to do one thing. Consistency is the most important piece of advice. Share your work even when you don’t think it’s great. If you don’t share your work, you can’t find opportunities.
Can you share anything about your upcoming projects or series? When can we expect “Boys Will Be Boys”?
“Boys Will Be Boys” is an ongoing project, so I’m still photographing it. I’m going to have an exhibition in a few months. I’m also going to work on a video project. I want to do more film than photography projects. So, there will be more video projects than photography in the coming months.
What’s a life tip you swear by to maintain a work-life balance?
It doesn’t matter what I said because I don’t know. Be consistent. Consistency is very underrated. Whatever we’re doing in life, the more we do it, the better we get. Be consistent, and it will take you farther than you can imagine. It’s a rule of life: if someone is persistent in their work, the universe will reward them whether they are good or evil.
