Expressing joy for family at this time.
I am witness to the inquisitive mind of Femi as an artist. To give a sense of personhood, he is family, that is- he is my cousin. With many features from editing, curating and designing, he grows deep into the work he places his hands on.
As a photographer, he touches portraiture, fine art and a nature. As a father, he carries an echo of old wisdom in his written foreword.
Formally Olufemi Adegboye, he self published his debut album titled, Bàbà, Father.
As a visual artist, I love being drawn into to positioning of subjects. Seen in his work, there are times where he shoots from a two point perspective.
The above photo shows a tender moment- a young girl cushioned in her father’s chest as he looks on. A poster of the jazz trumpeter Miles Davis can be seen on the wall. I get a sense of their self expression: the cinnamon curls reveals an elusive smile on the girl, still greater; the lavender corduroy overcoat which both enwraps his daughter and shelters his skin.
His subjects meet beautifully at a point, where a line crosses the centre horizontally and vertically. He experiments with lines as the viewer’s eyes travel toward the centre, bringing depth and dimension to the portraits.
He captures fathers who face forward with their bodies gracefully turned off centre. In these photographs, there is the presence of an affirming arm, a present touch. Often with one side leading forward, each father rests, leans or supports the body of their child. The father and child are the beautiful extension of the other.
With respect to the children within the captures, the view seems to point up from ground level. The main direction to each scene is that the father and child are framed together. The focus on the family aspect in this theme is intentional.
A conversation with black fathers.
-Olufemi ‘Ollie’ Adegboye
As men, they have each carried their own story in fatherhood. Their knowing nature as fathers has a certain look in the photographs: holding their children in a way to calm, to steady or to reassure them. When not looking into the lens, the eyes would fall to their children. They are placed amidst wonderful arrangements in his photos, with aesthetics of colour, texture.
Some view of architecture in the background or certain placement of furniture is seen to measure the size of the subjects. Ollie has nature photography where we see how far back the landscape is, also how distant they are to the lens. The father and child are well balanced with their surroundings. They can be relatively placed from in the shot, a long view.
Their warm presence is felt in the lighting with hues perfectly matched to their dress and environment. These images reveal a richness in the skin tone. The photographer decides on the atmosphere to capture in, revealing a clear mark of character in each family photo. In some of the album, the images are taken from above. The album begins and ends with a familiar father and son image.
Bàbá, Father is a hard cover book bound in cloth, embossed text in gold. Silk printed images on 136 pages. Edition of 250
Book available to order on site.
