25/04/2024
Have a Seat: Let's Talk About Nigeria with Nupo Daniel
You have seen this image before, and it is most popularly used to promote events about Nigeria or Africa. I know I have.
Type Nigeria on Unsplash, and this image will pop up. It was an obvious choice for promoting the PARC Project's upcoming Nigeria Forum for Businesses and NGOs on Thursday, May 16th, from 12 to 17 in REDI Neuvottelee, Kalasatama.
However, little is known about the story around the day the image was taken, the photographer, why the photo was taken, and what has happened since the image went viral.
Art for Business was lucky to speak to Nupo Daniel Deyon, popularly known as The Wallpaper Guy, the photographer behind this viral image. We learnt a thing or two about Lagos, Nigeria, and this young and brilliant photographer, so Let's talk about Nigeria with Nupo Daniel Deyon
He is a photographer and a graphic designer based in Lagos, Nigeria, but he was born and raised in Badagry, Lagos. Daniel tells us his love and passion for photography runs through the family; his dad was a photographer. He pursued professional photography at the age of 16 years, when he also got his first camera.
At the age of 20 years, he fell in love with mobile photography. Nupo mentions that this particular image was taken with his Samsung mobile device on that eventful day. Daniel would randomly take photos and edit them regularly. He was pushed to do this because he was tired of the narrative and images you saw when you googled Nigeria or Africa on the internet. The popular imagery was of poverty, scam, famine, and starvation, and this one-sided imagery was not well represented even on image stock databases, for example. He just grew tired.
On the day this photo was taken, Nupo was out with his friends on top of the famous 1004 Building in Lagos, gazing at the view; he returned the second time to take the picture. He had to take a couple more shots to get the right images. At that moment, gazing upon a rare view barely shown when you searched for Nigeria, he knew this was a priceless moment and had to document it.
Fun fact: This image also has a night version, which was taken first. He returned to capture the "day version" that went viral.
I wanted to capture a side of Africa that people do not get to see. A side of Lagos, Nigeria that people know exists but do not really know what it looks like. And for the representation of Lagos, Nigeria or Africa to change " - Daniel recalls
"Standing on top of that building, the view translated the beauty Lagos holds, and I just saw the need to put the image out there for people to see what it really looks like". - He adds
Daniel has also taken numerous photographs of different buildings in Lagos over time. His dream is to travel through Africa, document more places, and tell our stories through his photography, and he is looking for collaborations and partnerships. Nupo says he is grateful that the image is doing what it is supposed to: change the image of Lagos, Nigeria.
Although he didn't plan or know how things would end, he wanted to capture Lagos and was pleasantly surprised. This image has gone viral and continues to make a bold statement. He hopes that through this image and others, people will see Lagos for what it truly is: a very beautiful place that holds a lot of business opportunities, a vibrant business hub people can look to invest in and make Lagos a launchpad for Nigeria, West Africa, and the continent - Africa.
To learn more about Nupo, check out his works on instagram:
