Lights at Night: Contemporary Artistic Photographs from Lagos, Nigeria 

The neon lighting of Banyan Garden, a restaurant in Ikeja, shines brightly and colorfully in the darkness of the night. This gives the place, which seems inconspicuous by day, a completely different effect and attracts attention. Three people are sitting in the diffuse pink-violet light; one of them uses a cell phone light to make his face visible for the photo, casting a large shadow on the wall. The photo is part of a small series of night photographs from Lagos, which the artist Nengi Nelson has published on Instagram. She comments: “I am realising that so many places have been a bit obscure to me during the day present themselves differently at night” (@nenginelson1, September 28, 2023). Nelson’s photographs and her commentary reveal how the city transforms at night, appearing in a different light and feeling like an entirely new place compared to the day. However, not only does the image or impression of the city change at night, the behavior and activities of its inhabitants also shift with nightfall.¹This article is based on my research on night photography in Lagos and includes considerations and results of my doctoral thesis. It is being written at the University of Salzburg and is expected to be completed in 2025. 

With an estimated population of over 18 million,²“Nigeria,” UN Environment Programme, accessed January, 20, 2025, https://www.unep.org/nigeria-0. Lagos is already one of the largest cities on the African continent and the cultural, and economic hub of Nigeria. Photography was introduced to West Africa shortly after 1839,³Jürg Schneider, “The Topography of the Early History of African Photography,” History of Photography 34, no. 2 (2010): 135, https://doi.org/10.1080/03087290903361498. and by the 1850s, the first photography studios run by Africans had already emerged in the coastal cities.⁴Erin Haney, Photography and Africa (Reaktion Books, 2010), 24. Since then, the significance of the city of Lagos within the history of photography has steadily increased. With international art festivals and numerous cultural institutions, the city remains an important location for the continent’s art scene today. In addition, Lagos itself is a central motif in numerous photographs and the artists describe the city as a muse and inspiration for their artistic work.⁵Information on the artists’ statements in this text comes from conversations and interviews with the artists conducted during a research stay in Lagos in 2022. I thank them very much for their support. In contemporary artistic night photography of Lagos, light plays a central role, both formally and thematically. It serves as a stylistic device and as a recurring motif, whose various meanings and functions will be examined in the following discussion.

The etymological origin of the term ‘photography’ lies in Ancient Greek, with “phōs” meaning light and “gráphein” meaning to draw, which literally translates to “drawing with light.” Photographing the night or darkness is therefore a paradox: light is necessary for the act of photographing, and only through light as its opposite can darkness be represented and made visible. Generally, photographing at night is more technically challenging than during the day due to poor lighting conditions. In Lagos, this is further intensified by the frequent power outages, which I will revisit later. The artists I interviewed photograph digitally at night and usually refrain from using additional spotlights, lights, or flashes for their shots, instead making use of the available lighting conditions on site and creatively incorporating them into their photographs. Because Lagos has a high crime rate, some artists have an ambivalent relationship with night photography. There is a risk of equipment being stolen and of becoming a victim of violence oneself. One strategy for dealing with this risk is the negotiation of space. This means they sometimes visit the location in advance and/or speak with the people and the so-called area boys. These negotiation processes can be understood as part of the overall photographic act, as theorist Philippe Dubois describes it. According to him, photography (the final product) is no longer separated from the act (its production and reception) — they are all one.⁶Phillippe Dubois, Der fotografische Akt. Versuch über ein theoretisches Dispositiv, trans. Dieter Hornig, ed. Herta Wolf (Verlag der Kunst, 1998), 61.

The various light sources of the nocturnal city — car headlights, neon lights in clubs, streetlamps, oil lamps at market stalls, fire, flashlights, or phone displays — are creatively utilized by the artists and deliberately manipulated through photographic techniques to evoke distinct visual effects: strong blur, image noise, light streaks, and halo effects are frequently and purposefully employed in night photography. In day photography, these effects would sometimes be described as photographic deficits, but in night photography they are used as an artistic tool to create a dreamlike and unrealistic atmosphere, as described by the photographer Andreas Feininger. Thus light and color themselves become the central subjects of the photograph.⁷Andreas Feininger, Grosse Fotolehre (Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 2001), 293, 311. The series “Late Nite Callers” (2007) by Uche Okpa-Iroha, which captures scenes from the streets of Lagos at night, displays such a creative utilization of light. The photographs show the traffic, the street, neon lights, people, and market stalls. Immediately, the strong blurring, streaks of light, and image noise strike the eye of the beholder. Uche Okpa-Iroha has not only incorporated these effects but intensified them to the point of abstraction, rendering the objects beyond recognition. This is achieved by, amongst others, deliberately moving the camera while taking the photographs. In some of these images, the shape of the light streaks enables viewers to trace his movement during the shot, making the act of photographing itself visible within the frame. In other instances, such as Figure 2, only two red light trails at the center of the image indicate a car passing at high speed from right to left. Their color contrasts with the dominant green light, which appears to emanate from two large lamps, halos surrounding the source. Additionally, this abstract photograph also creates a meaningful contrast between movement and stillness in urban life through the interplay of these two types of light.

The series “Highlife” (2016) of the artist Andrew Esiebo deals with the vibrant party life in Lagos. The color-intensive photographs depict various social classes dancing, celebrating, and escaping from everyday life. Here, what stands out is the use of light in the composition of the images: In the photo of a club full of dancing people, architectural elements are utilized to create the geometry of the image, as well as colorful rays of light that shine into the crowd.

As a result, the beams of light guide the viewer’s gaze and bring certain scenes into focus. This is also evident in another photograph from the same series. Taken outdoors, this image captures a young man standing in the middle of a blurred crowd of people disappearing into darkness.

In his outstretched right arm, he holds his smartphone, directing its flashlight toward himself — an otherwise small light source that takes on an extraordinary intensity in the darkness. Like a stage spotlight, it casts a cone-shaped beam of light onto his face, upper body, and hand gesture, reflecting off the sweat on his face. He looks directly into the camera and uses the light to ensure his own visibility in the darkness of the night and in the photograph. Thus, light is important in two ways: the artist himself uses the light for the photograph on a technical and compositional level and the depicted people stage themselves with the help of light. Comparing these two images, the unequal distribution of light in the city becomes evident. The first shows how vast amounts of energy are consumed in the nightclubs of Victoria Island, while the second, taken in a working-class neighborhood, reveals that darkness predominates here and that self-organized light sources are relied upon. Through the differing use of light and the lack of light, the disparities between urban districts and the existing socio-economic differences among the population become visible.

Because a reliable energy supply is lacking, power outages happen every day and night. Although the first electric street lighting was introduced in Lagos as early as 1898, by the end of the colonial period and especially from the mid-1960s onward, a growing gap between supply and demand emerged. In addition to the lack of maintenance, increasing corruption in the country in the following decades also became a major issue.⁸Ayodeji Olukoju, “Chapter Two. Electricity Supply in Lagos, 1898–2000”, in Infrastructure Development and Urban Facilities in Lagos, 1861–2000, ed. Ayodeji Olukoju (IFRA-Nigeria, 2003), 27, 30, 32, 34. This long-standing energy crisis has posed challenges for the population for decades, forcing them to adopt self-organized solutions, including the use of generators by individuals and businesses. However, not everyone can afford a generator and its operation. Despite the country’s large oil reserves, there is always a fuel shortage increasing the costs of this resource.⁹Rédaction Africanews, “Frustration for Nigerians facing fuel shortage and rising prices,” Africanews, September 04, 2024, https://www.africanews.com/2024/09/04/frustration-for-nigerians-facing-fuel-shortage-and-rising-prices/.

This issue is indirectly addressed in many night photographs, but Jere Ikongio’s immersive and interactive project “Power-Less” (2016–2019) explicitly focuses on it. The entire project explores the connection between electricity and the powerlessness of the population and criticizes the role of those in power, implicitly at least. The series of photographs included in the project have mostly been taken on the streets of Lagos. Some of these images have been processed into GIFs, expanding and transcending the boundaries of the photographic medium. Stillness and movement are central concepts in the examination of Ikongio’s GIFs. They were not created from moving images, but rather from static photographs. In the loop, it is not the movement of a person that is repeated, but the movement of colors. This is especially effective because, apart from the moving elements, the photographs are black-and-white.  The GIF presented here probably takes place at a market: A young woman sits next to a pan, in which food is likely being prepared, and she presents it with a flashlight.

The beam of light here is tinted in various shades of green. It briefly flashes green twice, with the gray tones of the photograph visible in between. The light then becomes marbled and dark green, with a lighter green tint extending from the lamp toward the pan. This movement mimics the flow of light, which is normally invisible to the human eye. By slowing down the GIF, this otherwise imperceptible movement of light becomes visible.

This focus on the flashlight’s light indicates the central importance of self-organized light sources in the street trade of Lagos. These sales activities are part of the informal economy in Nigeria. The vital role of Nigeria’s informal economy is underlined by studies that reveal that in many countries on the African continent, over 80% of jobs are in the informal sector and in Nigeria the informal economy accounts for almost half of the official GDP.¹⁰Franziska Ohnsorge, Shu Yu, eds., The Long Shadow of Informality: Challenges and Policies, (The World Bank, 2022), 234, 236, https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-1753-3. This informal economy on the streets and markets of Lagos continues at night which makes light a fundamental necessity. People use individual light sources such as oil lamps and battery-powered lights to display their goods, as can be seen in a photograph by Anthony Monday.

The image was taken in 2021 in Makoko and shows two market stalls with vendors and customers. Striking at first glance is the intense blue light emanating from a brightly lit lamp on the rear stall, casting the vendor and the wall behind him in an almost unnatural hue. Due to the position of the light, the vendor casts a large, dark shadow onto the wall behind him, while his shirt and the large white letters spelling ‘Sales’ stand out brightly in contrast. The stall in the front of the picture, lacking a light source of its own, benefits a little from the glow of its neighbor. A man sitting next to it, holds a phone with a glowing display in his hand, a potential alternative light source. Although a larger and warmer light shines into the scene from the right, its source located outside of the shot, it is not sufficient to illuminate the goods. The scene highlights the self-organization and improvisation of public life, as well as the creativity of the population in dealing with the lack of light and the darkness. The ease and resourcefulness with which people organize their own sources of light shows that this has become a standard practice rather than a temporary solution. As already emphasized through the initial images of the nocturnal party scene, the night is also a social space. In this context, I would like to discuss another photograph by Uche Okpa-Iroha: One photograph of his series “Late Nite Caller”, in which the recurring motif of an illuminated parasol in warm orange tones takes center stage.  It can be considered as paradigmatic for a number of other photographs from the same series that show people sitting together, chatting or playing cards, which emphasize the social and communal significance of the night. While the parasol shields people from sunlight during the day, at night it seems to be transformed into a light-giving, oversized lampshade, creating a social meeting place. Photographs like these visualize the importance of light for social interactions at night. 

I would like to end with a photo that was taken in 2002/2003 by Zaynab Toyosi Odunsi on the former Kuramo beach in Lagos. The image serves as a representative example of the series “Kuramo Nights” in which the artist photographed young people working in the bars on the beach as dancers, DJs, club owners and prostitutes. The respectful and intimate nature of the shots is achieved through the warm lighting and sometimes by close-ups. 

The photograph shown here, also rendered in warm tones, captures a dynamic and almost surreal-looking dance. The dancer stands slightly bent forward with her legs spread on the narrow rear railing of a stage, her arms braced against the posts on either side. It almost appears as though she is pushing the seemingly slightly bending pillars outward, creating an impression of extraordinary strength and endurance. Particularly in the area of the hips and buttocks, motion blur from twerking can be observed, which withdraws this part of the body from the (potentially sexualized) gaze of the viewer. The light source at the right edge of the image illuminates the dancer like a spotlight. Remarkably, the artist positioned herself behind the stage, shooting against the light. In doing so, she does not adopt the audience’s point of view, but rather that of the people who live and work on the beach. At the time, the Kuramo beach had a bad reputation as a place associated with crime, drug trafficking, and prostitution.¹¹e.g. Kayode Ekundayo; Chris Agabi, “Kuramo: Lagos’ Very Own Sodom And Gomorrah”, Daily Trust, August, 07, 2009, https://dailytrust.com/kuramo-lagos-very-own-sodom-and-gomorrah/ Through her focus on individuals, the use of color and lights, and the unusual camera angles, the artist challenges prevailing stereotypes and offers a change of perspective. 

Eva Wiegert

Eva Wiegert studied European Art History, Cultural and Social Anthropology (WU Münster) and Art History in a Global Context (FU Berlin). From December 2020 to April 2025, she worked as a research assistant in the Department of Art History at the University of Salzburg. During this time, she wrote her doctoral thesis on contemporary photographs by night in the Nigerian metropolis of Lagos, which is nearing completion. Since May this year, she is working as a scientific-curatorial graduate trainee in the field of photography and media art at the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg.