If you’ve been following me for a while, then you’d have realized that taking pictures is one of my passions. As a little girl growing up in Lagos, I always had a camera with me whenever there was a special occasion. And when my mates spent their pocket money on snacks and ice-cream, I saved mine to buy film and to pay the costs of developing the pictures afterwards. At that point, it was just a way for me to document moments I wanted to remember in my life, some sort of archive.

However, when I started blogging in 2014, my love for photography grew even more and then last year, I decided it was time to take it up a notch, but as things go, I had a lot of other things that I was working on, so I never got to practice my skills as much as I’d have liked to. I loved my pictures, but I knew that I could do better.

So when one of the projects I was working on since last year finally came to an end this August, I decided it was high time I focused more on my photography and here we are.

Kawe is a photo project and an attempt at improving my photography skills. In Yoruba, kawe means to study, which is exactly what I tend to do with this project- study on shooting using natural light and learning how to use editing software like photoshop which I’ve never used before. 

I didn’t want to do just any random photoshoot, so i came up with a concept. I planned to improve my photography skills by capturing images inspired by identity and culture and in this process, the thought provoking images will be accompanied with essays or poems for a full bodied storytelling narrative.

I hope that with this, I can also drive important issues to the fore front and enable room for open discussion about the topics in the collection.

The collection currently includes 4 shoots that have been completed and 3 more which I’m yet to shoot.

They are:

  1. Love Thyself- Which explores self-identity
  2. Lost In The Diaspora– Which explores the acceptance of African culture
  3. Waiting For My Lover– Which explores love and the concept of a soul mate
  4. My Preference(Virgin Mary)- Which explores Black male “preference” when choosing a life partner and the idea of skin colour influencing female desirability
  5. You Too Loud- To be announced
  6. A Coconut In Black Spaces- To be announced
  7. Aliens- To be announced

 

I’m currently looking for 2 female models and 5 male models for the remaining 3 shoots, if you’re in London and interested in a collaboration, please email me.

Below is the video I made of all 4 shoots. Please comment and share on your socials, with friends and family who may need photography service. I’m accepting bookings.

Enjoy! The first shoot in the collection will be posted on Tuesday 31st October.

Please subscribe to my YouTube channel. There’ll be new videos every week!

 

 

YouTube Channel- Sewafolie

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