Adewale: blending photos with poems for visual effects
Kennedy Adewale is a photographer. But he also embellishes his photos with poetry. Together, both come to give him a rare artistic identity. In all his works he brings human
Kennedy Adewale is a photographer. But he also embellishes his photos with poetry. Together, both come to give him a rare artistic identity. In all his works he brings human experience to juxtapose nature and vice versa. In this review, Edozie Udeze takes a closer look at some of his works that indeed speak volumes and which equally appeal to all lovers of art. Adewale applies his art in England presently.
An artist is the mirror of society. In all he does, he ensures he captures the soul, the whole essence of humanity. Nature becomes his first love. Either as a photographer, poet, novelist, painter, writer or dancer, his main purpose in life is to make the society his centre-piece, indeed the cynosure of his attention.
This is what Kennedy Adewale represents in all his works. A committed and resilient photo-poet, Adewale is profound; he is at home with the work of his hands. The lens obeys him, his fingers put a camera's trigger ready in most circumstances.
While growing up in his natural rural area of Ekiti in Nigeria, Adewale fell in love with nature. The beautiful scenic environment of the state beckoned on him endlessly. Even as an undergraduate student of Ekiti State University, this love further blossomed. It blossomed more to propel him into a bigger photographer.
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Today he has taken that commitment further with more advanced photographs and scenic views which are the hallmark of his professional dexterity. Combining photography with poetic renditions and offerings, make him unique.
His works are deep. He uses deep-rooted sense of poetic lines to embellish narratives in style and content. This can be clearly seen in one of his works here titled 'the infinite reach'. Here the sky is blotchy blue. This is nature displayed without distorting anything. The camera is sharp. In the photograph, Adewale brings mankind back to that mixed but natural feeling of love, far removed from melancholy or arbitration.
He says of the work: “The world is mostly sky, mostly sea. Therefore this is a study in the blue of liberty”. Indeed it is because from whitewashed walls, the eye begins to roam'. The eye also roams to unite with the blueness of the sea.
Combining his works with poetic images and lyrics, where sequences beckon in true captivating lines, Adewale thus registers himself as a multi layered artist. Not too many photo-poets can be so clear or genuine, so distinctive. But he has chosen to immerse himself deeper into this special calling that today his works relate to “distant isles that call the spirit home in quiet soaring prayer”.
In 'the gateway', he pinpoints what is usually said: 'photos do not lie'. The blue sea is recorded in its deep hue. The bridges or concrete in-between symbolizes the convergence of nature and humanity in one fell swoop. Sea and bridges are two in one. The sea can be abridged also to give man hope, assuage his expectations and build a meeting point for both.
That 'concrete frame silent in the tide', thus says Adewale. This artistic recreation is unique in the sense that the tide welcomes the concrete hook, line, and sinker. It is indeed evocative, unique, classical.
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Adewale says “it is where harbor winds and salty secrets hide. The ferry waits beneath a heavy shroud'. Yet there is an indigo of mist and then the shifting clouds hover above, tilting. The bridge is the anchor here. It is the hope as the water drifts and returns in a manner of a recycling voyage. Life itself is a voyage and the poet has to capture it.
It is clear somewhat that 'the white cascade' of the sea roams larger and then appeals with bated breath and silhouette of actions and endless activities. The beauty of 'the white cascade' is seen in the brightness of the colours. As white juxtaposes blue, a sea of love is hereby acclaimed. There is a bigger sense of Adewale's recourse to deeper application of colours. Bright colours bring artistic works nearer. There are no dull moments.
Hear him: “Like spilt milk pouring down the caldera's face… holding the edge of morning's purest light”. In another photograph titled 'the earth's embers', he explains: “Red rock and rust against the endless blue. It is a textured path where old and wild are new”. Here, like an infinite mercy, the clouds are bruising heavy with the rain, while volcanic stone recalls a distant pain”. Adewale reaffirms also that bright achre gives frozen in the sun. It is long after all the mountains' works is done”.
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But what is it with sea and nature and other artificial interferences in his works?. It is because for him, art is not merely a hobby. Art is a sensory translation of life. Here nature is life and life is hinged onto the fabrics of beauty. Adewale explores all these contours and more. And what you get is nature and artistic expression or exploration that reveal shared experiences.
In it all, you discover that photography is the visual heartbeat of Adewale's poetic offerings. Together, both photography and poems give his works an edge, a sort of documentary flavor that captures all life's narratives and nuances in different volumes and sensibilities and explorations.
This shows that his exposure while in his teenage years in Nigeria where he was exposed to the spoken word also helped to mould him into a bigger calling of today. Using poetry now, he photographs, he resorts to rhythmic story-telling for more emphatic repose. The struggle between nature and man, the interplay thereof are all rhythmically brought to the fore in all his works.
Some of all these can also be seen in these two remarkable photo-poems – 'the obsidian shore' which shows a shore of shadow, more or less, 'horizon of resilience' which explores the interplay between natural permanence and human transience and then all of them situate the artist as an enigma. He is then always and at every point caught between visual, wordsmith and storytelling. But again, photography takes the upper-hand, signaling the appearance of a visual artist in an updated mold and model.
