Some Kind of Waithood (2022)
walk in my shoes
prayer, like survival, is a style
it changed my life
work
on my mind
in the hands of God
body brand
the shirt on my back
keeping well
Some Kind of Waithood (2022)
digital photography collage, 9 photos.
Focusing on students at the University of Nigeria (Enugu campus), this project is a portrait of the contentions that young people like me in Enugu were grappling with. Coincidentally, the week I started my research and photography, the Academic Staff Union of Universities called a strike (their 16th in 22 years) that left students out of school for eight months.
Nobody was surprised by the strike. The urgency of an old question reared its head. The question: how do we make our living, despite the authorities’ agendas?
So, I spoke to 9 students about how they work, how they keep well, what defines them, their dreams, what changed their lives, and more. Each resulting image is a cross-sectional portrait of the 9 students using objects that represent both everyday mundane and significant encounters in their different lives. For example, the photo ‘Work’ is a collage of the objects the 9 students use for their work, but one object has been replaced with a portrait of the object’s owner.
The header photo was taken in the University of Nigeria Nsukka in 2020.