ONCE YOU LEAVE LAGOS YOU WANT TO GO BACK (Part II) | Street photography in Lagos, Nigeria

Maybe one of my awesome travel experiences of the last years was my first trip to Nigeria. I’ve already posted some of my images taken in Lagos few months ago. You can re-watch the blogpost here. I was invited by my very good friend (black brother from another mother – as we joke sometimes) Segun Olotu, a great documentary, street and wedding photographer born in Nigeria but based in London, United Kingdom. Some of his excellent work can be seen by clicking this link. I’ve been there for 14 days shooting two weddings, both of them over 1000 guests (so I checked some new things on my wish-list) and almost everyday shooting on the streets of Lagos and visiting places where an “oyinbo” (term used by Nigerians to refer to a white man or to a person of European descent or to a person which has nothing to do with the African culture) is seen few times in a life.

Being a new place for me, I was impressed almost by everything: their good vibes, energy and happiness (they are laughing and joking all the time), the unbelievable car traffic which I had to avoid when I left the country by leaving the hotel for the airport 10 hours before my departure to Paris (Lagos is one of the largest city on Earth regarding population, if I remember correctly it is the second largest city of Africa after Cairo – over 20 million people are sharing these pieces of land). I loved they know how to party and I loved their fresh fruits (the taste is unbelievable, different if you try the same fruits in Europe). The nightlife is also great as I’ve been partying in some of their most exquisite nightclubs.

Lagos is beautiful and next year I will go back there as a speaker at one of the biggest gathering for documentary, street and wedding photographers in Africa: The Now Collectives. There’s a subscribe form on their website if you want to receive more details.

Enjoy this fresh set of images taken on the streets of Lagos! 🙂