States/LGs lack art galleries and museums – Lemmy Ijioma

So, I found out that I had to start doing them myself. I then had to combine photography with my regular job of lecturing in Mathematics and Physics. As a matter of fact, during my undergraduate days in the early seventies, I earned more money from photography, especially Polaroid photography than the regular vacation jobs […]

So, I found out that I had to start doing them myself. I then had to combine photography with my regular job of lecturing in Mathematics and Physics. As a matter of fact, during my undergraduate days in the early seventies, I earned more money from photography, especially Polaroid photography than the regular vacation jobs all undergraduates did then.

In 1979, I found photography interfering so much with my mathematics/physics lecturing jobs. I had to call it quits with regular salaried jobs and give photography my full attention. Since then till now, I have taught photography at different levels and mounted numerous exhibitions with galleries in Aba, Makurdi and Abuja.

As a photographer and one who has taught it, what would you say about photography not being taught in schools?

It is not only photography that is neglected in Nigeria’s educational system. Arts and sports are some of the greatest endowments of the black man but in Nigeria, not much is done to develop them. Photography, like some other aspects of learning, was introduced into Africa not as an art form but as a tool of glamour, espionage and trade for people who had no other job to turn to.

You know as well as I do that that should not be the case, especially in this era of information technology (IT). We still see signposts in our airports and landmarks forbidding photographs. Do you realise that in the near future, no history book or website will exist without photographs or videos. All over the world, people are investing heavily in documentaries. Even if all Nigerians carry cameras – not just phone cameras, we cannot completely document our existence. Photography, Music, Painting, Sculpture and other forms of art should be more aggressively taught at all levels of our educational system.

Even when we organise cultural and other related events, we only enjoy them as jamborees but the aesthetic aspects are not translated into commercial documentaries because there are no trained hands and minds to do this. Have you ever seen the kind of tools in the hands of our diplomatic photographers? Do you know that no state or local government in Nigeria has a gallery of arts or museums?

What is the Association of Photographers doing about it?

I’ll rather answer this on a lighter note. I was in my studio one day and a former bank manager came with his son whom he said had just completed his high school education. His idea was that I recruit the boy and train him to be a photographer. I inquired from him if the boy passed his O’ Level Physics and Mathematics. The man’s quick reply was “if he passed them, what would I need to bring him here for?”

This summarises the mindset of most Nigerians about the practice of photography. You talked about the photographers’ association; because of the kind of people who form the bulk of the practitioners of photography, it is difficult to have an enlightened association. Most of them just consider the profession as a last resort and so for them they don’t understand it beyond the level they see their local town unions.

The result is that all the professional photo commissions are illegally being executed by photographers from Europe and America with no local body to challenge them. In a nutshell, the association is yet to find its feet.

Photography is an art. How would you describe your art?

When photography started in 1826, people saw it as a tool for the painter. He used it as his work drawing. Many people do not know that it has even gone beyond that point. It is literarily the ultimate in art now. They do not realise we have gone on to imaging. In imaging, most of the works are done digitally; there is nothing you can do with paint or a brush that cannot be done in photography.

I am not saying you should leave painting to become a photographer. What I am saying is, even if you understand painting, you still have to understand photography to know what you are doing; because in the digital darkroom, you can do everything you want using computers. Photography is art and art is photography.

Have you had a really challenging piece that took quite some time before you eventually achieved your desired goal?

Yes, a lot of them. When I was trying to take a landscape from the top of the Kilimanjaro, I had to climb four times before I got what I desired. You see the landscape, but when you snap it, it doesn’t come out the way your eyes captured it. Your eyes see in three dimensions and until you can get that as you want it in a photograph, you are not satisfied.

Also, when I was working on photographs of lightning, it took me hours of observation before I could get it. It was the same when I was doing moon and stars. Every new job brings its own new challenges – children, landscape, abstract, sunset…until I have succeeded in communicating with people through my photograph, I still feel challenged. My photograph of the Abuja National Mosque took me some time because I wanted it with the half moon.

What is mathematical and physics about your photography?

From the contraption called camera to the product called photo image, you are talking mathematics and physics. The art form comes in appreciation. If you are familiar with your lens theory in physics, you are at an advantage in understanding the use of camera lenses. If you understand your plans and elevations topic in mathematics, you’ll see properly in three dimensions.

Of course, the theory of large numbers in mathematics tells you if you have very discrete prints in a given direction, that at above a certain number, the discrete events tend to a continuous event. This theory of large numbers explains the meeting point between photography and cinematography or videography. If you have many still photo frames passing through at a certain rate, your eyes tend to see the resultant photo movement as a video or movie.

Mathematics and physics play very key roles in the production and understanding of photography. The more IT compliant you are, the more liberal you’ll be with your level of imaging. There is a thin line between the physical sciences and photography.