‘Taking Boko Haram pictures most dramatic part of my career’

Weekly Trust: When did you take your very first photograph?Pius Utomi Ekpei: I have been in photography for a long time. Not even when I started with Daily Times in 1982. That should be in the late 1970s, so I can’t remember the precise date. I think my first photograph with Daily Times should be […]

Weekly Trust: When did you take your very first photograph?
Pius Utomi Ekpei: I have been in photography for a long time. Not even when I started with Daily Times in 1982. That should be in the late 1970s, so I can’t remember the precise date. I think my first photograph with Daily Times should be around January 1982 and I recall it to be a sports picture, because early in my career, I was heavily into sports photography.
WT: What prestigious award did you get along the line?
Ekpei: I got Reuters fellowship in 1989 and I was the first African to pick it up, as well as the third recipient right from the inception of the award. That also, was a prize for me to go to the University of Missouri to further my education.
WT: What are the secrets that make for an excellent photograph?
Ekpei: It’s all about the vision of the photographer and what he or she wants to achieve. We’re not talking just about the quality here because it depends on the mission, whether it’s for the purpose of information or documentation. Therefore, the composition, perseverance, passion and execution of the photographer matters because they reflect in the work. For example, when armed robbers were being executed in Benin, I already had a vision of what I wanted. The end product depends on the photographer and his or her goal.    
WT: From your childhood, did you foresee yourself becoming a photographer and a photojournalist?
Ekpei: No, it is God’s making. Then, I was thinking of something else. I was not sure of what I was going to do. When I found myself in photography, it wasn’t what I had in mind. I started by painting and that was what finally led me to photography.
WT: What was the most trying time in your career as photojournalist?    
Ekpei: There was a time I was getting disinterested because I saw myself doing the same thing all over. At a point, I was going to quit. But the way God works, at that point was when I got the fellowship. I told somebody in confidence that I think I have had enough and it was time to leave and I was asked “have you gotten another job?” I realised that the enthusiasm I once had wasn’t there anymore. I wanted a change.
WT: At what point did you decide it was goodbye to photojournalism for local media?
Ekpei: That was when we had a problem at Independent Weekly. They didn’t pay us for a long time and it just wasn’t funny. After that experience, I felt I had had enough and that would be the last experience I would have with the local media.
WT: What photograph have you taken that has generated the highest controversy so far?
Ekpei: I’m not sure if I have taken any picture that has generated the kind of controversy you’re talking about. But people always see my work and admire it, especially when I was with The Guardian. There, people discussed my work, even in schools. It was much later that I learnt all these, that people were using my pictures to do some lectures. That gave me joy.
WT: What about pictures that have generated the most interest?
Ekpei: There are quite a lot of them. There was this particular picture I made of two goats fighting and another of them came in-between to separate the fight.
WT: The most dramatic experience so far?
Ekpei: There was one experience I had and narrowly escaped. I took a photograph at Idumota in Lagos and before I knew it, ‘Area Boys’ came after me like bees. It was a policeman that drew out his pistol and ordered people to leave that saved me. He then told me that the place was a black spot and that I should leave. Also, I took some pictures of dead bodies in Baga, all alone. In Maiduguri when Boko Haram first struck years ago, after their leader Muhammad Yusuf was captured, we (AFP) were the only ones on ground to get the pictures, others couldn’t. They were not pleasant pictures at all.
WT: If you are to look critically at Nigerian photojournalism from what we had back then and now, what would you say?
Ekpei: There is an improvement in the sense that now everything is digitalised. People can send stories and pictures with their handsets and laptops, unlike before when one had to rush back to the office to file a story.
WT: What if compared to what is obtained in some parts of the world?
Ekpei: Photojournalists are appreciated more outside the country than here in Nigeria, in everything. It would take some time before we would catch up with them.
WT: The book you are presently working on, what is it all about?
Ekpei: It focuses on the practice of photojournalism in Nigeria. It is still in the making. The reason I have been unable to round up the work is because of the inconsistent power supply in the country.