Damilola Onafuwa

Damilola Michael Onafuwa is a Nigerian visual artist, documentary photographer and filmmaker. Damilola uses his captivating works as a tool to present a new perspective on the lives of people and their cultures, by highlighting human interest stories in its purest form, and increasing consciousness surrounding social issues in society.
He is notable for producing projects like "Angels Among Men", "Beautiful Noise" and "My Granddad's Possessions". Onafuwa's works have earned him international commissions and features with organizations such as Bloomberg, Heifer International, Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation, Vlisco, Ishk Tolaram Foundation, and UN agencies including WFP, UNOCHA and UNICEF.
He is the founder and creative director of StoryMaxima, a media and production services company based in Lagos, Nigeria, specialized in visual storytelling through photography and documentary films. StoryMaxima was founded with the intention to drive impact, and contribute extensively to the narrative change and image of the African continent.
==Early life==
Born in Lagos State, into a family of eight siblings, Onafuwa spent a lot of his teenage years exploring his creativity. He became a self-taught graphic designer at age 17. Certain design projects required images that depicted the African perspective on social issues and when Damilola could not find these references he needed to tell his stories, he explored creating his point of view through photography. Officially beginning his career in photography at the age of 19. 
==Career==
In 2015, he became a photography consultant for UNICEF Nigeria for the Hard to Reach Project, Nigeria. During this project, as documentary storytelling typically requires, Onafuwa travelled across 6 states in Nigeria: Bauchi, Borno, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Yobe, to explore the social and economic issues affecting the people who were relevant to this story.
In February 2018, Damilola curated his first solo photography exhibition titled "Angels among men", in partnership with Onome Akinlolu Majaro (OAM) Foundation, to tackle the misconceptions about people born and living with albinism. With this exhibition, Onafuwa highlighted the silent struggles and lives of albinos living in Nigeria, whilst challenging society to overcome the myths and unfair biases towards individuals and groups. This exhibition granted Onafuwa an opportunity to host his first TEDx Talk in August 2018, titled "Understanding and overcoming myths behind biases", where he discussed the cultural myths, "seemingly harmless folklores", stereotypes and daily lives of albinos living in Nigeria, and the importance for society to educate themselves on the facts of albinism and treat individuals born with albinism as well as they treat themselves.
In March 2019, the World Press Photo Foundation announced Onafuwa as one of the 245 nominees for the 2019 Joop Swart Masterclass.
Subsequently, in April 2019, Onafuwa participated in the Global Short Docs Forum (GSDF) which took place in Kyiv, Ukraine as a part of Docudays UA Film Festival. After a global call for participants, GSDF selected only 16 creative filmmakers from the numerous entries. Participants had an opportunity to attend a 4-day residential workshop with masterclasses from industry decision makers, pitch meetings and collaborations.
In July of the same year, Damilola was a visual art and photography contributor to Agbowó Magazine's "The Limits Issue".
In 2021, Onafuwa was hired by the UNOCHA to capture the Cost of Hunger in north east Nigeria. 
In 2022, Onafuwa curated a portrait collection featuring children among items his grandfather left behind titled "Grandad's Possessions". 
In November 2023, Onafuwa and his team at StoryMaxima organized a 2-day visual documentary storytelling workshop titled "StoryMaxima’s Doc-You Mentary Bootcamp", to empower early-mid career documentary filmmakers and photographers.
==Awards and honours==
* Nominee, The Future Awards Africa Prize for Photography.
* Member, Africa Photo-Journalism Database.
* Participant - Global Short Docs Forum 
*Fellow – Skoll World Forum
Category:Nigerian people
Category:Nigerian artists
Category:People from Lagos