Introduction

Flashback to some years back in school studying animal biochemistry and nutrition – just another fancy and smart word for animal science. Animal scientist in the house no vex. Getting admitted for a 5 years course in ‘The first and the best’ sure comes with a lot on the side and at some point, a little church photography was the side along with lots of other sides to the main dish – a degree in Animal Science. The photography side was mostly a thing of hobby, leisure at that time.

I really wasn’t your ideal student, depending on where you come from. Disclaimer, my choices and decisions in school in no way portrays my thoughts on formal education as a thing. I just was an exceptionally different kind of student with almost no visibility in class at certain period in my academic journey. I remember one time 3 years into the course and my course mates then wouldn’t believe I wasn’t a transfer student, but that didn’t do much in keeping me away from class the next minute.

Fast forward to my last days in school, after our final papers and all, and the usual pressure peculiar with that season – What in the world am I going to do with my life? Or in Lasisi’s voice ‘poverty sat me down…. Amidst various options on what life could be like, the cards fell on photography but it was until a year after – 2020 that it all began.

Honestly why photography? Storytelling. There are a lot of stories embedded in our lives, beautiful ones at that and being able to tell such stories with just a click is just something too fascinating to give up. There are stories everywhere we look, in our lives, our day-to-day activities, our events and special occasions. Being able to tell these stories from a lens and keeping the emotions real and intact, enough to be relived after. Now that’s something too good to pass off, at least for me.

So yeah, I jumped right in with both feet and having documented a number of special moments, some happy and some quite emotional, and being in the moment with my clients, experiencing these emotions with them and capturing every bit of it, it’s just beyond beautiful, one that we at LP Media don’t take for granted.

At the first, it felt like a lot of explaining. I mean having to explain how of every possible outcome, photography was the next course of action when there were other options like the beautiful medicine and surgery (my child dream profession) or even moving around with a helmet as an engineer, any engineer for that matter – it felt like a lot of explanation, most especially with the cameraman stereotype.

Of course I know this story is not just peculiar to me. In this age, with lots of soft skills and career paths different from the usual ‘honorable path’, some of us have had to experience conversations like this, some even weirder.

Three years down the line, when asked what do you do? Without any side thought, my response is I capture beautiful moments in peoples’ journeys in life for a living.

I AM A PHOTOGRAPHER. What do you do?