Making photography attractive creative enterprise
UK-based Nigerian artist, Sola Akinpelu is one of the few Nigerian artists desirous of giving back to his roots. He is also enthusiastic at offering any assistance and support pro
UK-based Nigerian artist, Sola Akinpelu is one of the few Nigerian artists desirous of giving back to his roots. He is also enthusiastic at offering any assistance and support pro bono. Last week at the School of Arts, Design and Printing, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, he facilitated a photography workshop for about 55 students of photography at the College.
The workshop, which was organised by his studio in collaboration with the School of Arts, Design and Printing to provide students with insights into opportunities in photography as a career, was a follow up to Akinpelu’s solo photography exhibition held at the Graphic Department of the College. The exhibition with the theme A place where time softens featured 40 impressive images that traverse spaces where light becomes mood, where colour becomes memory, and where the ordinary reveals its hidden elegance.
Through these initiatives, Akinpelu, a graduate of English Literature from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State is exposing participants to career and entrepreneurship opportunities in photography and visual media as well as promoting artistic expression and innovation within the college community.
Some of the photographs displayed at his exhibition included Day and Night talk, Waiting room, Walk alone; journey home, Commonwealth cemetery, Essex; Home, talk with mother earth, All seasons, Hope, Tables’ turn, Life time canvass and Two roads; path less travelled among others. The works exhibited were from 2020 to 2025.
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The collection reflects on time as a living presence, one that stretches, overlaps, and gently dissolves at the edges. Day and Night talk, an intergenerational conversation between an aged woman and a little girl, captures the movement between generations while exploring the space between youth and old age, where beginnings and endings are less separate than they appear. The photograph also reveals the reality of time and the cycle of life as symbolized by the two images. The artist through gentle imagery, colour, and mark making, creates a meeting place where ages quietly converse.
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Thematically, the exhibition offers a space to slow down and take a fresh look, while urging viewers to step outside linear time and into a softer, more generous rhythm, where nature leads, generations meet and time is felt rather than counted.
Akinpelu, a professional photographer exploring identity, space, and story through the lens, is no stranger to the photography business having earned over 22 years working experience that covers fine art, street style, landscape, portrait and abstract photography. Each genre offers him different language through, which he explores form, emotion, and the quiet narratives of everyday life.
“My approach is rooted in curiosity and shaped by a deep respect for detail. I am drawn to the spaces where light becomes mood, where colour becomes memory, and where the ordinary reveals its hidden elegance. Whether I am creating conceptual fine art pieces or capturing fleeting street moments, my work seeks to evoke rather than merely documenting,” he noted.
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A place where time softens, which ran from February 11th to 13th, draws inspiration from nature’s quiet continuity: the patience of trees, the instinctive flight of birds, the slow passing of clouds across an open sky. According to the artist, these natural rhythms offer a counterpoint to human time, reminding us that growth, rest, change, and return are all part of the same cycle.
In his interaction with the photography students during the workshop held at Yusuf Grillo Auditorium, Akinpelu urged the participants to take cognizance of their environment, relevance of their tools, and their person as artist.
He noted that ‘passion, and the understanding of yourself is very important. Now, your understanding of yourself is also very important. It’s the first step that you need to because without understanding yourself you will not have what you push out to your audience and to the general public.’
He highlighted the importance of adapting a phone camera to meet specific needs, stressing that the phone should be used for much more important things than social media. “Learn how to use the settings of your phone to actually take pictures. Don’t just use your phone for social media, Instagram and Facebook alone. It’s a tool. It’s a very important tool in your life. And you can actually use it to capture stories that you want to tell,” he said.
Dean, School of Arts, Design and Printing, Yaba College of technology, Lagos, Chinyere Ndubuisi described the collaboration as part of the school’s town-gown programme geared towards exposing the photography department students to practice in the industry.
She noted that majority of the students didn’t apply for photography at the onset but because they couldn’t get admission to study Mass Communication were then offered Photography because it is an as an aspect of Mass Communication.
“So, some of them are confused and not sure the way forward. So that is why we welcome this workshop because from the workshop, we can see that a lot of them now have a better understanding of photography moving forward. Yes, some of the lecturers do teach students outside the curriculum but most lecturers are strictly on the curriculum, they don’t give the students the other aspect of life that they need to know but they have been able to get that today through this workshop.
We encourage having such programme between the Town and Gown because the Rector of Yabatech encourages such programmes AS he’s the master of Town to Gown and he encourages collaboration. That was why the moment we took the proposal to him, he gave express approval for the programme and we plan to have more as long as they come our way,” the dean assured.
