Yagazie Emezi
Yagazie Emezi (born March 2, 1989) is a Nigerian artist and self-taught independent photojournalist based in Lagos, Nigeria. Early life. Emezi, a native of Old Umuahia in Umuahia South, Abia State, was born March 2, 1989 and raised in Aba, Nigeria. She is the younger of two siblings, her older sibling being Akwaeke Emezi. Career. Emezi started with photography in 2015 and has been commissioned by "The Washington Post", "National Geographic", "Al-Jazeera", "The New York Times", "Vogue", "Newsweek", "Inc.", "TIME", "The Guardian", "Refinery29", "Everyday Projects", "The Weather Channel" and "The New York Times Magazine". In 2017 , Emezi lived in Monrovia, Liberia for ten months documenting the impact of education for girls in at-risk communities and then returned to her ongoing project "Re-learning Bodies" which explores how trauma survivors, outside the narrative of violence and abuse, adapt to their new bodies while marking the absence of an effusive culture around body positivity as a noteworthy cultural phenomenon. Emezi is a recipient of the 2018 inaugural Creative Bursary Award from Getty Images and was a 2018 participant of New York Portfolio Review. She has been featured by "British Journal of Photography", "Huffington Post", "i-D", "Nieman  Reports", "Paper", "Vogue", CNN and "The Washington Post". In 2018, she received a grant from the U.S Consulate General in Lagos for her photo-series addressing the reality of sexual violence against women and the vulnerable young in Lagos, Nigeria. In 2019, she became the first black African woman to photograph for "National Geographic Magazine" and is a National Geographic Explorer Grantee. Yagazie was among the 2019 inaugural artists selected for Kehinde Wiley's art residency at Black Rock, Senegal. Her artistic photo-projects aim at criticizing Nigeria's socio-political state and the role media plays in it while  pulling from the country's history and current events. Emezi was a 2019 nominee to the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. She serves on the advisory board of Everyday Africa and is a contributing member.