Many of the photographic artifacts had been discarded, destroyed, or simply left to deteriorate.
“I think in the photos you can see there was an attitude of optimism, a carefree feeling among many,” Kassinen told WePresent.
Ohiri and Kassinen say they began after discovering local photo studios disposing of their film databases as digital methods took over and studios closed down.
The team emphasizes that their aim is not simply to preserve images but to engender a collective responsibility around photography, memory, and heritage.
The project also exposes an urgency of preserving Lagos’ analog archives, which are vulnerable to neglect or erasure.
Ohiri emphasized the point, stating, “There’s a real sense of urgency to the work. There are four or five archives we hold whose owners have passed away since we started the project. When that happens, the access to context and information is erased.”
The Lagos Studio Archives project is critical to a larger discourse about ownership and preservation. This focus on rescuing marginalized narratives mirrors the ongoing reckoning around African art and photography held in Western museums. Just as the Lagos Studio Archives brings local voices to the forefront, calls are growing louder for British museums and other global institutions to part with their holdings of African cultural art. As conversations about restitution and repatriation escalate, the archival work in Lagos serves as a vivid reminder of the breadth of what has been lost—and what might be returned.
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Source: Black Enterprise
