Photographer Andrew Esiebo investigates the impacts of urbanising Nigeria in the World in Common Exhibition at the Tate Modern

Through his honest photography, Esiebo challenges the Nigerian government to consider the poorest in society and create spaces for them amidst the rapid urbanisation of the country.

Four of Andrew Esiebo’s photographs are displayed in the Tate Modern exhibition, A World in Common, on show until 14th January 2024. The photographs are from his ongoing project Mutation which documents the changing cacophonous visual landscape of Lagos, Nigeria, where Esiebo grew up and is currently based. One photograph captures the concrete arms of a flyover framing the burnt carcass of a van, in one the camera looks down on people and cars battling their way through the city, another depicts a rig, and the final photograph shows a street overlooked by three dominating metal gates.

Andrew Esiebo is a visual storyteller who started chronicling the rapid development of urban Nigeria through photography. Recently his work has progressed to integrate multimedia practice, exploring themes of sexuality, popular culture, and football. His photographs have appeared in various publications including The Guardian and the New York Times. His work has also been exhibited in galleries around the world, at the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil, Lagos Photo Festival and now at the Tate Modern in London.

Esiebo’s four photographs were displayed in the final room of the World in Common exhibition under the theme Shared Dreams, where artists contemplate futures shaped by globalisation and the climate emergency, exploring how the city becomes a site of collective histories. Esiebo reveals that the photographs included in the exhibition encompass Mutation as a body of work and considers “the urbanisation of Lagos, in reference to architecture, conditions and how people navigate their daily life in those spaces.”

Urbanisation has transformed Lagos, which is the eighth fastest growing city in Africa, with the urban population of Nigeria rapidly increasing from 29.7% in 1990 to 51.2% in 2019. If Nigeria’s urbanising population continues to grow at the same rate as now, Lagos could become the world’s largest metropolis. Esiebo speaks of the challenges of urbanisation in Lagos, concerned about the “lack of attention to the environmental consequence of this rapid development” with the government just “putting concrete, concrete, concrete.”

Through his photography, Esiebo raises the question of accessible infrastructure and the importance of incorporating public space for the poorest classes in the development of the city. One paper, exploring the realities of the urban development of Lagos on the livelihoods of the poor, states that “the actions of the state government contradict the whole essence of sustainable urban development and poverty alleviation, but reflect an agenda deliberately targeted to further impoverish the poor.” Mutation captures this reality but also reveals resilience. The waterfront slums of Lagos have been forcibly evicted multiple times by the government causing mass displacement to build luxury buildings. In an article for the Guardian Esiebo and journalist Ijeoma Joy Ike, documented through photography and interviews what happened. Bisola Adewale, one of the displaced residents is photographed with her son in the centre of a flattened landscape, she says “the only crime we committed is that we are poor people.” In the photograph, her son stands defiant, arms crossed, challenging the government.

Esiebo’s series Love of It investigates the various manifestations of football in Nigeria and the appropriation of football in unconventional environments, or “informal football spaces” as Esiebo terms it. In the images, children play under concrete flyovers, on rooftops, in alleyways, corridors and in one image with a herd of cattle. Esiebo goes on to say that his interest in football allows him “to talk about resilience” and the images are “a call to action to leaders that are building the city, you have to think of these kinds of spaces that people can access” asking the question of the Nigerian government, “are you creating recreational spaces for people?”

Esiebo’s photographs tell intimate stories of people and places through knowledge and respect. When asked about why Andrew documents Lagos and Nigeria, he explains that it’s a great privilege and second nature, “I’m from this place, I think I understand it…back in the day many of our [Nigerian’s] stories have not been told by us.” Through his photographic practice, Esiebo is challenging the reality that “in Africa…the camera arrives as part of the colonial paraphernalia, together with the gun and the bible…” as Yvonne Vera, a Zimbabwean novelist, wrote.

He challenges this reality by capturing intimate moments within his expansive images. Sat on the sweeping concrete arms of the flyover, in the Mutation photograph, are two groups of people. This colossal structure becomes an intimate place of exchange, revealing the ingenuity of the people of Lagos. Similarly, in his series Highlife, Esiebo captures intimate moments of tension and joy within his images of the under-represented party culture of Lagos.

Esiebo’s photographic work explores how people interact with space, encompassing themes of urbanisation and the need to create spaces which provide for all classes of people. When asked what he dreams for Nigeria in the future, Esiebo reflected that the “basic needs of humanity should be accessible to everybody” including access to housing, healthcare, education, and recreational spaces.