leeds INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN ARTS FESTIVAL
EARTHWISE
Guest curators LIAAF are bringing their vibrant celebration of African photography to the festival with an exhibition themed Earthwise- An Exhibition of Creativity, Community Reflections and Renewal, featuring photographic artists:
Arteh Odjidja, Tobi Dosumu, John Moussa Kalapo, Oluwakemi Oluwunmi.
Earthwise by Tobi Dosummu
EARTHWISE explores humanity’s relationship with the earth through documentary images of clay, craft & transformation. Reflecting traditional practices that embody ecological knowledge, the project presents the earth as a living archive shaped by cycles of making, use & return. The work invites reflection on sustainability & our shared place within the natural world.
Tobi Dosumu is a fine art & portrait photographer exploring identity, memory & emotional transition. Projects, include Carriers of Water, Carriers of Life, Earth Remembering Hand & Beyond Sixty, draw on cultural traditions as living memory, inviting viewers to slow down, reflect.
Rise for Bayelsa by Arteh Odjidja
Rise for Bayelsa is a global campaign highlighting the environmental and human impact of oil spills and gas flaring in Nigeria’s Niger Delta. It amplifies the voices of those most affected in Bayelsa State.
In 2018/19, London-based photographer Odjidja joined the award-winning Aequitas team to document the damage caused by multinational oil companies in the region. The campaign was launched in March 2019 by Bayelsa’s then-Governor, Henry Seriake Dickson.
Arteh Odjidja explores identity, representation, and social experience through socially engaged photography. His work has been exhibited at Tate Modern, The British Museum,and he teaches internationally for Leica Camera AG.
Emanuel’s Garden by Oluwakemi Oluwunmi
Emmanuel, a charity trustee, opens his garden as a place of gathering—hosting family-like moments and community events rooted in connection and belonging.
He tends it with care. When a strong wind felled a once-thriving tree, he chose renewal over mourning, preparing to plant again later this year. Though some African seedlings have failed to germinate, he remains hopeful, planning to try again with ugwu and bitter leaf. With his wife, Folakemi, he keeps nature close—grounded in patience, memory & renewal.
Oluwakemi Oluwunmi is a Nigerian-born, Glasgow-based artist whose collaborative photography explores culture, place, and belonging through portraiture and environmental storytelling.
...Who Are You? By John Moussa Kalapo
In a village in Mali, at sunrise, a man & his child stand at the edge of a maize field. His hands are still marked by the red dust of the earth, and his gaze rests on the well-formed ears of corn, pressed closely together, heavy with fulfilled promises. This year, the harvest is good. Abundant. Generous.
A smile lights up his face. It is not only the satisfaction of work accomplished, but the certainty of having endured despite uncertainties, the sometimes unpredictable rain, the intense heat, the daily effort. He knows what each ear represents, months of care, patience & hope sown into the soil.
“The earth does not lie,” he says simply.
John Moussa Kalapo is a Bamako-based Malian photographer whose documentary work explores social realities & everyday life through storytelling & photojournalism.
