J.D. Okhai Ojeikere

Ojeikere was born in 1930 in the western part of Nigeria. One of his cousins advised him to buy a camera and taught him what he needed to know. In his young days Ojeikere incessantly writes to the Ministry Of Information, asking them to hire him as an “assistant in the dark room”. His tenacity is rewarded when in 1961 the first television station was founded.

On the eve of the decolonization he was contacted by the West African Publicity agency where he paid his dues; soon after that he opened his own studio “Foto Ojeikere”. In 1967 he became an active member of the Nigeria Art Council, an organization in charge of organizing a festival of visual and living arts. This was the opportunity for Ojeikere to devote himself to Nigerian culture, to which he was deeply attached.

“Hairstyles” is his best-known collection, involving almost 1000 different hairstyles that give an image of the African woman. He found these “sculptures for a day” on the street, at a wedding or at work.