The Lens & What the Future Holds with Deji Akinpelu

Deji Akinpelu is a Photographer and a Documentary Film Maker with an interest in Urban Development from the perspective of the Urban poor. His body of work includes valid dreams; a photodocumentary on the forceful eviction of Otodo-Gbame residence between 2016 and 2017. Several of his works have been published and exhibited. He is a producer of the documentary film Kelechi's quest; a documentary that focuses on the growth of affordable housing in the fast-growing city of Lagos.

Below is the summary of the Radio Show The Lens & What the Future Holds with Deji Akinpelu

We had Photographer and Documentary Film Maker, Deji Akinpelu. Deji had described himself as a photographer with a deep interest in urban development. According to him, Lagos was always interesting, seeing how people live with their many experiences in housing, waste management and how everything was a mismatch of luxury and poverty.

On his choice to pursue photography, he revealed that he had always wanted to do something that will outlive him. He further remarked that he hoped to give back to society, capturing things for the future with the vulnerable people in the society as a touchpoint. Discussing challenges faced in the city’s housing sector, he described some of the challenges that an average person is faced with in securing housing in the urban city. Although the government is said to be making efforts to provide housing for the people even with the many constructions going on, people were not still moving in.

Recounting his journey into filming documentary, he recalled that it had started with a phone call, a young lady had called at the time to inform him about a place that was being destroyed and so he went, an experience he described as heart-breaking. He described documentary filmmaking as an interesting field as anyone could make a documentary about their street, the people, etc.

Speaking on the advent of mobile phones, he commented on the number of videos that were going around during the just concluded presidential elections in the country. This he referred to as documenting; people documenting through which news is being created. Although, photography and film documentary could be quite challenging as there were often harassments still he mentioned that it was all about understanding the environment, meeting people and interacting with them.

He further spoke on other challenges, he chuckled saying that issues such as when one pulls out a camera often appears as if a gun was pulled. Even with tools associated with the field such as drones and the regulations that guide their usage, there are often issues around it, he surmised. To this, he advised that the Government speed up with innovation as it grows.

He also commented on the topic of the show saying he believed it was a question of the impact a person carrying the lens could affect in the future of their society in terms of quality storytelling as an artist. He also commented on the issue of housing saying that the land use act needed to be revised as laws should also be enacted against forceful eviction. He maintained that the future of the urban poor fell in the hands of the middle class to help push the message for such persons to be helped in the society.

He also preached on the need for a rethink, as the idea of demolishing a place because prostitutes or area boys reside at a place was not reasonable even as they are first human beings. He envisaged that more and more documentary filmmakers were coming up however documentary filmmakers are sometimes caught in the web of doing events and wedding still the passion and dream remain to make positive contributions.

Although it could sometimes be daunting and challenging, he advised up and coming photographers to start in their space, to start with a small story as there are a lot of opportunities for youths at this time.