Akinbode Akinbiyi

Akinbode Akinbiyi was born in Oxford in 1946. He grew up in Lagos and in England and studied Literature and English in Nigeria, England, and Germany. In the mid-1970s, he began to photograph as an autodidact and, he lived in Heidelberg and Munich, finally moved to West Berlin where he has lived ever since. He is among the most well known African photographers and is internationally a curator and writer.

Akinbode Akinbiyi’s pictures have been shown at exhibitions and biennials in Tokyo, Paris, Philadelphia, Johannesburg, and Havana, and have been published in various magazines. His focuses are reportage, architectural and cultural photography. In 1987, he received reportage scholarship from Stern magazine; the ensuing picture series of the West African cities of Dakar, Kano and Lagos brought him renown. In 1993 he and close friends founded the UMZANSI cultural center in Durban, South Africa.

Akinbode Akinbiyi has curated a number of exhibitions for the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), including STADTanSICHTEN – LAGOS (2004) and Spot on DAK’ART – Die 8. Biennale zeitgenössischer afrikanischer Kunst (2009) presented at the Ifa galleries in Berlin and Stuttgart. In 2003 he curated the German contribution to the Rencontres de Bamako – Biennale de la Photographie Africaine in Bamako, Mali.

Directory Details:

Name: Akinbode Akinbiyi 
Category: Photography
Country: Nigeria
Website: www.zodml.org