Editorials
Abuja International Photo Festival 2026: Osaze Efe Wants You to Look Beyond the Photographs
As the festival marks its 10th edition, its founder and creative director reflects on a decade of Nigerian photography and the questions raised by artificial intelligence.
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Abuja International Photo Festival began not as a rival to Lagos, which founder and creative director Osaze Efe calls Nigeria’s “creative capital”, but as an effort to widen the country’s creative geography. While major events including ART X Lagos, the Lagos Biennial, Lagos Fashion Week and Design Week Lagos have helped establish Lagos as Nigeria’s creative heartbeat, Abuja International Photo Festival offers another avenue for photographers to exhibit their art, exchange ideas and build professional networks.
Now in its 10th edition, the festival has welcomed more than 10,000 visitors over the last five years and presented work by photographers including George Osodi, Kelechi Amadi-Obi, Aisha Augie-Kuta and Yagazie Eguare. This year’s theme, Convergence: The Future of Imaging, coincides with the bicentenary of photography, marking 200 years since Nicéphore Niépce produced View from the Window at Le Gras, the oldest surviving photograph made with a camera, in 1826-27.
Looking back on a decade of Nigerian photography, Efe tells Art Report Africa that Nigerian photographers have moved beyond documenting events and people to exploring “identity, memory, culture, politics, gender, and our place in a rapidly changing world”. He has also noticed a greater willingness to experiment and challenge established narratives.

This year’s programme explores the tensions most evident in photography today, from the female gaze in the age of AI to the photographer’s evolving role in a changing creative economy. Efe sees digital technology, social media and AI expanding possibilities for photographers, while raising critical questions about authenticity, representation and ownership. And so he encourages audiences this year to look beyond the photographs and pay attention to who controls the images we see; whose stories are being told, and whose are missing; and what happens to truth and cultural identity when machines become part of the creative process.

Abuja International Photo Festival’s 10th edition features 63 exhibiting artists, alongside workshops, panel discussions and masterclasses. It takes place at the Exhibition Pavilion from 27 to 30 October.
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