Olawale Adekola
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Lagos, Nigeria·2023·Mentorship · Photo Series

The Young Storytellers of Makoko

A six-month mentorship programme with teenagers from the Makoko community, learning the craft of photography by photographing the place they already know best.

A teenager holds a camera to their eye, framing a shot across a busy street market.
A group of young people gathered around a laptop reviewing photographs together.

The first lesson was not technical. It was permission — the idea that their own neighbourhood was worth photographing seriously.

Contact-sheet style arrangement of small portraits pinned to a cork board.
Final week edit, on the wall.