BY WILFRED OKICHE
In this body of work, exhibited at Nommo Gallery, Kampala, from 12–30 October 2023, Titilayo Samuel Olufemi turns his attention to Ìdùmòtà, one of Lagos Island’s oldest and most dynamic commercial districts.
Bringing together photographs of the Ẹ̀yọ̀ Cenotaph, market streets, workers, and urban architecture, the exhibition explores the relationships between cultural symbolism, commerce, labour, and transformation within one of the city’s most recognisable spaces.
Olufemi’s photographs are less concerned with individual landmarks than with the ways different elements of the city coexist. Monuments stand alongside market stalls, traders move beneath civic symbols, and contemporary structures occupy the same visual landscape as longstanding cultural references. Throughout the exhibition, Ìdùmòtà emerges not simply as a location but as a place shaped by continuous interaction between people, place, and public life.
At the centre of the exhibition is the Ẹ̀yọ̀ Cenotaph. Photographed from a low vantage point against an open sky, the white-robed figure rises above the surrounding cityscape. The sculptural folds of the garment dominate the composition, while the concealed face resists individuality, allowing the monument to function as a broader cultural symbol.
Yet Olufemi avoids isolating the figure from its environment. Utility poles, electrical cables, commercial buildings, and roadside signage remain visible within the frame, situating the monument firmly within the realities of contemporary Lagos.
The strength of the image lies in this relationship between figure and setting. The monument occupies the same visual territory as traders, commuters, vehicles, and infrastructure. Rather than existing apart from everyday life, it becomes part of the wider landscape through which the city moves and operates.
The photograph encourages viewers to consider how public symbols derive meaning not only from their historical significance but also from their continued presence within active urban space.
This relationship between monument and place continues in the photograph of the Ẹ̀yọ̀ plaque. Embedded within a textured stone surface, the inscription records the significance of the festival while simultaneously drawing attention to the material qualities of the monument itself.
Cracked stone, weathered edges, and accumulated marks of exposure become central to the image. Olufemi’s attention to surface transforms the plaque from a simple commemorative object into a study of texture, permanence, and physical presence.
If the Ẹ̀yọ̀ photographs establish the exhibition’s symbolic framework, the market scenes provide its energy. In the panoramic view of Ìdùmòtà Market, hundreds of umbrellas stretch across the frame, punctuated by yellow buses, moving vehicles, and dense streams of pedestrians. Seen from above, the district reveals itself as a complex arrangement of movement and exchange.
The image rewards prolonged looking. Individual encounters emerge from the crowd while patterns of circulation gradually reveal themselves within the larger composition.
Olufemi approaches the market through form as much as subject matter. Repetition, density, colour, and movement become the organising principles of the photograph. The umbrellas create a patchwork of visual rhythms across the image, while roads and vehicles carve pathways through the crowded landscape. Commerce appears not merely as economic activity but as a force that shapes the physical appearance and visual character of the city.
This attention to human activity becomes more intimate in the photograph of a porter navigating a heavily loaded cart through a narrow street. The towering bundle behind him dominates the frame, transforming a familiar scene into a study of effort, balance, and movement. Around him, pedestrians negotiate limited space while traders occupy the edges of the street.
The photograph captures the physical demands that underpin everyday commerce, revealing labour as one of the forces that sustains the district’s constant activity.
Another image looks down a corridor of tightly packed buildings and market umbrellas. Electrical cables stretch overhead while crowds move through the narrow passage below. The architecture appears to compress movement into a confined channel, creating a visual tension between enclosure and flow. Olufemi demonstrates a keen awareness of how urban space shapes human behaviour, directing movement and gathering people into shared environments.
The exhibition reaches its most compelling moment in the photograph of the fire-damaged high-rise overlooking the market. The blackened façade dominates the composition, its exposed concrete and fractured structure bearing visible evidence of destruction. Yet beneath it, commercial life continues. Brightly coloured umbrellas occupy the foreground while traders and customers move through the streets below.
The image derives its power from contrast. The damaged building introduces uncertainty and fragility, while the market beneath it suggests continuity and adaptation.
Olufemi avoids sensationalising the structure’s condition. Instead, he places it within the wider visual and social fabric of Ìdùmòtà, allowing the photograph to speak through juxtaposition rather than drama. Ruin and activity occupy the same frame, neither overwhelming the other.
Across the exhibition, Olufemi demonstrates a consistent interest in relationships rather than isolated subjects. The Ẹ̀yọ̀ Cenotaph, the commemorative plaque, the market streets, the workers, and the damaged tower all exist within a shared urban landscape.
Each photograph gains significance through its proximity to the others, creating a dialogue between monument and market, symbolism and labour, permanence and transformation.
What emerges is a portrait of Lagos Island shaped by commerce, ritual, movement, and continual change. Buildings, monuments, workers, and public spaces appear not as separate narratives but as interconnected elements within a district whose character is constantly negotiated through everyday activity.
In bringing these images from Èkó to Kampala, Olufemi offers a thoughtful and visually compelling examination of how a city reveals itself through the spaces, encounters, and structures that define public life.
