Re: “The Ability to Create is the Most Amazing Thing that Could Happen to Anyone”
By: Famous-Isaacs Ogadu
Tags: Photography, Lagos Nigeria, Top Nigerian Photographer, Copywriter

I once heard someone say that having the ability to create is the most amazing thing that could happen to anyone. This is good to remember, because my life as a creative revolves around every possible conceivable meaning that those words can inspire. Let me tell you how.

“Isolated Dreams”, featuring Model Amazing Nnaji. Photography by Famous Isaacs

I started photography in 2014. But it wasn’t photography itself that I loved, it was cameras. I loved cameras from the very first moment I heard the sound of the shutter click when I pressed the button in one which I held the evening a photographer dropped his gear in front of my room and went to spend time with a female corps member who was also serving at my place of primary assignment (PPA), a school in Abacheke-Egbema, Imo State. Up until then I had never used a dedicated camera; I knew about cameras on mobile phones and I had no idea how dedicated cameras work. But I realized the power it had, and immediately began to see possibilities in all that I could do with it if I got one. I was writing a lot of poetry at the time because it was all I had to do after the day’s work at my PPA, and I began to imagine how instead of painting pictures with words, I could capture stories and emotions in pictures. The following day I placed an order for a Nikon D3200, and it was delivered to me on April 14, 2014.

“The Dark Con of Man” featuring Model Jewel Obazee. Photography by Famous Isaacs

I remember having feelings I could not name, the blankness instead of excitement that I struggled with, the afternoon I first held my own camera. I stared at the camera, confused about how to get started on achieving the excitements I had anticipated, because by the time I got the camera I was done with NYSC and was teaching in a small school in the village. Things were not the same as before, and my parents were especially not in support of my new acquisition. However, that afternoon I went to the back of our house and there was this little girl, the five-month old daughter of one of our tenants. She was smiling at me and I took some photos of her using the default settings in the camera. A week later, I printed the photo of the girl, only to learn that it was the only photo that had ever been made of her. Suddenly I felt good, not because I got paid (I wasn’t paid), but because the image I made of the girl was something of good value to the girl’s parents. It wasn’t just a picture, it was memory. And something I was responsible for. Something I created.

Apex Clothings, at Fashions Finest Africa, 2018. Photography by Famous Isaacs

Things took a different turn about two weeks later. The girl’s mum died. There were no photos of her anywhere- no memories. It was as if she was ash that’s been blown into the air in a turnado. Few days before she died of health complications she begged me to make a portrait of her together with her baby. I assured her that I would, but I never did, because somehow I didn’t feel up to the task of doing a good job. I wanted the perfect image and I felt I would achieve it when I have practiced enough. Neither she nor I saw her death coming. Even worse, about three months later, the baby herself died. I remember watching as the father wept, confused about what to do with his life. The only real thing he had left was that photo of his daughter which I’d made.

I began to see that photography wasn’t just about pictures. It was a responsibility. I began to see myself as a visual storyteller documenting today for tomorrow. And that has largely influenced my approach to my art since then, because in every photograph I make, I am continually seeing clients who find various meanings in them. A picture becomes “not good enough” to them if those meanings are not seen. I once made a portrait of a man in Benin-City. Frankly, the location in which the photo was made was not very beautiful. Every other photographer I knew at the time was making changes in backgrounds of photos they make and none seemed to have anybody make trouble with them for doing it. In fact, I had clients who left me because I didn’t know how to change portrait backgrounds like others did. This was 2015. I was just learning to branch from street photography to portraiture, still coming up at the time, and although I had mastered the skill, my understanding of the business and relationship side of the game was still very much below colourful- and I knew it.

Moofa, at Arise Fashion Week, 2018. Photography by Famous Isaacs

So I made this client’s portrait, and because the background wasn’t very nice as I saw it, I decided that changing the background of the photograph would be appreciated. I should have asked him, but I didn’t. When I printed the images and gave them to him, he immediately rejected them. He asked why I changed the background and I explained to him, but he said to me: “This is my house. Beautiful background or not, I am proud of it and I love to see it like that, because I have nothing to be ashamed of in it.” That experience has influenced how I approach portraiture till today. I make sure to now do a consultation with the client before a shoot, so I note what-and-what is required, or is being expected, and I work hard to bring these to life for them. If it’s something I cannot deliver perhaps because the work is not in line with my business objectives or my approach to my art, I honestly let clients know that I can’t or that I won’t, and then I either refer someone who can, or let them find someone else by themselves. This is because I have since learned that the images aren’t just about me, it means uniquely differently for different clients- and most importantly, my business is not for everybody.

“Urban Agenda,” featuring Model Toyosi. Photography by Famous Isaacs

I eventually moved to Abuja in 2015 and I started to see a very different view of life from how I have always seen it back in Benin-City. I met contemporaries like Gottay, Fabulous Banji, Aisha Augie-Kuta and Ejike Manny, and their works blew me away. It wasn’t because I wanted to make works the same way they did too. Meeting them inspired a clear understanding in me that awesomeness has a human face, but even so, we all have to define for ourselves what awesomeness means. This is very important. The interesting thing is this isn’t just applicable to me as a photographer: to a very reasonable extent I feel many people need to know that too. Over the years I have constantly had clients who are more interested in how heavily kitted I am, than in what results I produce or how I work. An example I remember is a lady who decided to book me to shoot her child’s naming ceremony, because she saw me at an earlier event and I was shooting with a Canon 5D Mark 3. She immediately made up her mind to believe that I must be what she described as “an accomplished photographer” because I owned a Mark 3. But I have also had clients who refused to work with me because they felt I wasn’t “big” enough, as to popularity of my brand or portfolio of celebrity clientele and so I immediately wasn’t qualified to work with them. I met a lady once, for example, whom I was prospecting for a wedding gig. I still remember the question she asked that shocked me to my bones: “Whose wedding have you shot?”

There is a part in all of these that we don’t talk about very often, because it is really mostly personal. Think about the discrimination photographers and other creatives generally experience. From family. From loved other ones. Let me share two brief personal stories. First. When I bought my camera in 2014 I remember my father being so concerned for me he said: “So you finally bought a camera to join those boys in snapping hundred-hundred naira pictures.” It takes a Nigerian to understand what those words really mean in the real sense of it. There is hardly any day that has passed in which I meet a client who offered less money than I charged for my services, that I have not remembered my father’s words. Second. There was a girl I once loved who alleged that I didn’t love her enough because I refused to quit photography to go get a job like she wanted me to- at a bank or one of these companies, she’d say. She clearly didn’t believe that photography was honorable enough a professional for the man who was going to identify as hers. She had her reasons, I believe. We never really understand why people think the way they do; I am quite very eager to contend with that. But how do I ever get convinced that a woman really ever loved me if she had this hatred for what I did legally for money, and which gave me happiness? I never judge her to be anything but just human, but each time during the relationship that she sent me job openings on Jobberman.com my heart broke and it took power from me. Nothing hurt as much as being seen as “not enough.”

I love my life as a photographer and I honestly do not regret how far I have come. Together with some friends, I recently started this new brand called TAWKA Magazine and we have this big dream of changing the narrative by inspiring beautiful conversations about Africa and Africans. I was recently asked why I thought this to be important and I asked: “When was the last time you typed ‘Africa lifestyle’ on Google? What kind of images were you shown?” That’s what we hope to influence, and change because we believe that there is more to Africa than that.”

It’s been a real struggle getting this far. But looking back there is nothing I would have really chosen otherwise, than to be a creative entrepreneur. There is the privilege that I enjoy, being in charge of my life since I started out. I mean, really look at it: I get to work sometimes more than 18 hours a day but I never see it as work; so it’s not like I work less, I really work more- but I do so at my own pace, and on my own terms. I have no deadlines except those I mark out for myself. I schedule bookings for when it’s convenient, and if for any reason don’t feel up to a task, I just turn it down- no harms done. Most of all, I get to see content that I create actually being used by people and brands, smiling with satisfaction that comes with achieving whatever it is that makes them happy. This here, this is it, I guess. Power. Privilege. This is privileged power- all of it. And there is this joy I feel each time a client calls and subsequently emails his or her job description, and then asks me: “What will it cost for you to do this?” The satisfaction I feel, is something I hardly have words for. In my lone times I still wonder if it ever matters to my father and ex-girlfriend that I am happy with my life. That is a part I might never know.

BIOGRAPHY

I understand that this photo of me does not present me to look very professional. But it was shot by my trainee, Brown Idongesit, on his 8th day of training with me. I promised him I would ensure the whole world sees his awesomeness in mastering the lighting pattern I’d taught him. The future is beautiful.

Famous Isaacs is a wannabe business consultant and public speaker. Presently he works as a freelance content creator specializing photography, video production, video editing, copywriting and content writing. He also works as project manager in his startup, TAWKA Magazine. He is the author of several collections of poetry including Beyond and Words We Left Unsaid. He currently lives in Lagos, Nigeria. When he’s not busy with work, he makes trouble on social media @coziamfamous (Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/LinkedIn). His diary stories and some poems feature in his personal blog at http://thecorpor8hustler.wordpress.com