Again, Pieces of Broken Lens by Akintunde
A Nigerian photojournalist wins national acclaim for inviting calamity on himself, when security details of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar beat him to stupor. His fame is further entrenched globally as he captures an iconic image to document a nati
Fame wears different garbs. For some it is adorned in colourful apparel. At the hour of his recognition, renowned photojournalist, Akintunde Akinleye was drenched in pain. Incidentally, it was this trauma that catapulted him to prominence.
A routine assignment to cover an activity by former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos got him into a fracas with Atiku’s security details. Akintunde was given the beating of his life and his work tool damaged. At the time, he worked for a Lagos-based newspaper. His professional colleagues and human rights activists rose as one in condemnation of the brutality meted to him. The photojournalist became a newsmaker. From that day, his fortune changed for good.
But it was not an experience that he wished for a repeat. As a photojournalist, he has been exposed to many types of danger. “One major event is the Atiku thing that brought me to limelight. I don’t think it is a crime to take the picture of a vice president. For that, they dismantled my camera, beat me up. I landed in the hospital. Some publications had my pictures on front page. That was in 2003. Since then, I said I was not going to be that physical again.
“What I’m going to do is to project that activism through my lens in a matured, coordinated and organised way, in such a way that people can also learn from it. Apart from that, when I was doing the Delta Refinery Creek story, I was shot at by the military. They were shooting it so that we could stop, but my boat rider didn’t want to stop. It was that time that militancy was at its peak. You have go to the creek where they do it. You trace them by the smoke. I spent 14 days there. That was another experience. One other experience I had was the emotional feeling during the Jos killings in 2010. I shed tears while taking pictures. It was my first time of doing so.”
Three years after that unwholesome incident, which has since shaped his life, Akintunde held an exhibition titled, ‘Pieces of a Broken Lens’ at the Yaba College of Technology. Each image at the exhibition was part of a whole. His ability to find a fine thread that connected the 30 works made it a remarkable spectacle.
Today at the Africa Artists Foundation (AAF) in Ikoyi, Lagos, Akintunde returns with another 30-piece exhibition which explores the same theme, ‘Pieces of a Broken Lens’. The exhibition is a retrospective summation of his works over time. Based on his belief that the lens is a critical component of the camera, he finds his choice of a theme gravitating towards this fundamental part of his work tool.
The Atiku episode did more than raising his social and professional profile. It was the tonic he needed to fire his imagination. Starting from that time, his photography became more purposeful. The energy in the works was better harnessed towards an end. The activism in his works became apparent.
The conversation with his soul and the struggles within were manifested in the works that came from is stable. A new Akintunde had emerged; one whose world-view transcended self and geographical borders. The agitation from within was beginning to reflect in his lens. For instance, he likens racism to lack of development in Africa. He used one of his recent projects on Delta Creek Refineries to explain what his work is about.
“We documented the agitation of those young men who break oil pipelines which ordinarily is not a very good environment. You wouldn’t want to endanger yourself to break pipelines. My work is based on activism. It’s not bread and butter journalism. I document the ills of the society. However, it’s not just about bad things. I see beautiful things too. I try to show these agitation or activism through beautiful aesthetics in journalism which attracts audiences.”
Before finding his steam, Akintunde tried to strike a balance with his work. His definitive pieces were those that celebrated his professionalism as a journalist. Sometimes, he attempts to join the ongoing conversation on contemporary photography in Nigeria.
“People talk about conceptual, street and fashion photography. I’m a photo journalist. I can conceptualise and do other areas of general photography. If you are a journalist, you do almost everything. Photo journalism is about documentary. But some people stand out as conceptual photographers. They re-enact reality. I am talking about people like Yetunde Babaeko. It’s still photography. In this case, subjectivity has come in. Street photography is almost the same; you arrange everything in your brain.”
His current exhibition, which runs from today, is the first show of his works in Nigeria.