Henry Adebonojo

 

Henry Adebonojo is a man of many talents. He could, if he was so inclined, dazzle you with tales of his many accomplishments and travels worldwide, but that’s not his style. He rarely, if ever, brings up his work. But chances are you’ve seen something of his, or something he’s had a hand in, as his body of work is wide and extensive. This Is Africa wanted to shine a spotlight on one of the creatives working diligently and tirelessly behind the scenes.

By trade, Mr. Adebonojo is a photographer and cinematographer. He earned his undergraduate degree in Law at the University of Buckingham and then went on to study International Law at University College, London. I recently interviewed him about his background, his work, and his travels, focusing on some of his film work in African countries. We also discussed his photography across various African cities, and of African musicians in concert.

TIA: Tell us a little about yourself, your background and where you grew up.

Henry: I was born in New York City. At age 3, my family moved to Nigeria where my father is from, and I lived in Lagos until I was 18. I left for the UK and was there until I was 25. Thereafter, I returned to New York and have lived there ever since. Notwithstanding the fact that I have lived most of my life in New York, I still carry Nigeria and the UK very strongly in my heart, and in the way I see the world. I am the sum total of all those experiences, and they contribute to the way I experience life.
 
On the road in Mozambique

TIA: How did you get into photography?

Henry: While I was at college in the UK, I asked my father for a camera he’d bought in Japan many years before. He didn’t use it anymore so he gave it to me. It was a half-frame camera called aDial35 made by Canon. I mostly walked around taking snap shots with no experience or training in photography, but I loved the experience. I began reading photography books as a result. I then purchased a Nikon FM camera, which allowed interchangeable lenses. One day I took pictures at a rugby game and the fellow who ran the small photography outfit we had at college saw some of the black and white contact sheets of photos. He asked me to come in the darkroom with him and we printed a few of the pictures. I had never been in a darkroom before and the process of watching the images come to life in the developer bath sealed my fate and my future association with photography. One of the photos from that session stayed up on the wall in the student rest hall for almost a year.

TIA: Were there any photographers you looked up to?

Henry: As I began to study photography informally, I found myself drawn to black and white photography more so than colour. I would say the first photographer who made an impression on me was Bill Brandt. I was drawn to his images of desolate places and the wide-angle vistas of his nude series on the coast of England. His lines were very strong and I noticed the way he tried to make his subjects part of the landscape. His sensibilities were clearly discernible in his work. I subsequently discovered the work of Helmut Newton, Marc Riboud, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassaï, Eugene Atget, among a host of others. Then I went further back and discovered works by Felice Beatoand Julia Margret Cameron. As a child I was familiar with the work of Gordon Parks for Life magazine, and his work as amovie director. That exposure would come full circle when I shot a documentary about his life called Half Past Autumn for HBO. All told, the list of influences is very long.

Traders – Margate, South Africa

TIA: You’re also a cinematographer and film-maker. How did that come about?

Henry: My career as a cinematographer evolved out of my developing love of photography. As a kid I went to the movies virtually every weekend and I suppose that was in my blood. When I embraced photography as an adult it seemed natural to become curious about cinematography. At college I saw three films that would change my life in that regard. I could no longer overlook the emotional connection between the moving image and the spoken word. Those films were: Apocalypse Now,Kagemusha, and Blade Runner. Upon my return to New York, just out of curiosity and driven by impulse, I made inquiries about the film industry and how to get into it. About nine months later, I worked on my first production as a production assistant and haven’t looked back since. I began working as a cinematographer in 1993 and continue to do so today.

TIA: Was video work a natural progression from photography?

Henry: Most definitely. The two for me are inseparable. I think I came to realise a while back that I see first in pictures and then add words to it later. My primary impulse is visual. I am not sure if I have always been that way or have simply trained myself to be that way. 

TIA: You travelled to Rwanda with Raoul Peck to work on the movie Sometimes in April, which stars Idris Elba, about the Rwandan genocide. What was your experience of being part of this project?

Henry: I was hired by HBO to go and shoot behind the scenes on the movie, and I was quite honoured to be asked. It was my first time in Central or East Africa. I had previously shot with Raoul Peck and Idris Elba, so that helped in getting me on that job. Rwanda is a stunningly beautiful country with hills as far as the eye can see; lush green rolling hills. I was aware of the genocide that occurred in 1994, but not as well as I should have been. We were there ten years later and I had a hard time reconciling the beauty of the country and its people with the horrors that took place there. There were moments while I was there that I felt a sense of unease among the people. It may have been the discomfort of having to relive the episode in a film in order for it not to happen again. There seemed to be an undercurrent of uncertainty as to whether 1994 was truly in the past. Anyone who has seen the film will, I think, take away from it the fact that there are no winners or losers when such a tragedy occurs. Raoul Peck deftly handled the idea that we think we know what to do in a disaster of that nature, but in reality out of control events carry us downstream much the way the rivers carried dead bodies across that country. It may on the surface be an African story, but in reality it is a universal story. I carry Rwanda in my heart always as a result of that trip. When that trip was over, I read every book I could lay my hands on about the genocide. I desperately needed to understand what happened there.
 
Rwanda

TIA: You took a poignant photo of a stack of skulls from some victims at one of the sites of the genocide. I believe the location was a church not far from Kigali. Can you tell us more about it?

Henry: Yes, that photo was taken at a church about 30 minutes south of Kigali. When the genocide initially began, many thought, as most would anywhere in the world, that places of worship would provide sanctuary and be respected by combatants in the war that preceded the genocide, but that turned out not to be the case. At this particular church, people were huddled for safety along with whatever personal possessions they could gather before fleeing their homes. Men, women and children were among the victims in that church. Despite entreaties from all over to respect the sanctity of churches, a good many in Rwanda were violated by government troops and their cohorts known asThe Interahamwe. The favoured weapons of this marauding militia were the machete and the club. Bullets tended to be used by the military. As I understand it, at that location, the military breached whatever defences there may have been, probably UN Peacekeepers. They lobbed a grenade into the church, entered and shot into the ceiling. Thereafter, the Interahamwe took over, clubbing and hacking people to death. The majority of the fatal injuries were delivered by machete. In the picture you refer to, a single skull in a group of skulls is lit up by a single shaft of sunlight coming through one of the holes in the ceiling. It struck me as the identification of an individual human being human, not a nationality or tribe or even gender for that matter. Just a person saying I am not a “them” or a “we”, just a “me”! That idea came across strongly to me as I took that picture.  
 
Wesley Snipes and Danny Glover

TIA: You also travelled to South Africa and Mozambique with Danny Glover and Wesley Snipes to scout locations fora film about Toussaint L’Ouverture. Along the way, you took some interesting landscape and candid street photos in both countries. How was your time on this project, and will it ever see the light of day?

Henry: Yes, I did do a trip with Danny Glover and Wesley Snipes to scout locations for a biopic on the life of Toussaint L’Ouverture. His co-producer and his intended cinematographer, the brilliant Roger Deakins, came along on the trip. I was working with documentary director Michelle Stevenson for what was intended as part of a documentary about Haitian history which would have included the making of the film. We spent a couple of days in Mozambique and the remainder of the time, about ten days, in South Africa. Part of the financial package for the film would have required shooting in both countries. Wesley Snipes at that time was slated to portray Toussaint. Subsequently, the financing for the film fell apart so nothing further happened in that regard. Danny Glover got a commitment from Hugo Chavez for part of the financing predicated on shooting in Venezuela. I am not sure if that is still the case. The problem seems to be the remainder of the budget. Chavez I believe pledged $36 million out of a budget of around $60 million. I am not sure where the project stands at this point. The trip to South Africa and Mozambique were a first for me and I found both countries fascinating in their own way. The resulting photos I took were fairly typical of the kind I would take most anywhere I go: a desire to reflect something a little different from what I may typically have seen of such destinations photographically. I would love to visit both places again. I also hope the Toussaint L’Ouverture film gets made. It is an important story.
 
Serene Lagos – A sight seldom seem in photographs

TIA: You grew up in Lagos, and you have taken lots of photos of life in Lagos. However, your photos are a bit different from the many photos of Lagos we’re used to seeing, which tend to usually focus on the hustle and bustle of the city, with commotion and hectic scenes. Your images of Lagos usually have a calm aesthetic and a serene vibe. They rarely show chaos. Is this intentional?

Henry: I think what happens with me is that I have a fairly strong recall for photos I have seen before, even if it’s just one viewing. For that reason, I suppose subconsciously, I try not to repeat something I have seen before. There is a plethora of imagery that depicts the hustle and bustle of a place like Lagos, and indeed a good many other places, and I have seen a lot of them. I think it is all too easy to fall into clichéd representations of places and people. I feel like simply adding to the diversity of imagery of places I visit. Sometimes I am drawn to the geography of a place more than the people, and vice versa; as a result, some of my pictures are void of people, just scenery. Other times the people are everything. On a good many foreign trips, I try to get out early in the morning before the hustle and bustle begins to capture an empty quiet city. I’ve done that a lot. I also love shooting in fishing villages. There is something very sedate and alluring about them for me.
 
Seun Kuti at the Prospect Park Bandshell in Brooklyn

TIA: You’ve amassed an extensive library of concert and live music photography. What drew you to live music photography?

Henry: That is in good part thanks to you my friend (laughs). Musically speaking, my first love is jazz. There is something about the prospect of spontaneous creation that holds great appeal for me. Jazz performances especially are like a chocolate box full of various treats. The personalities, the instruments, and the group aesthetic on the stage are a special treat in a given moment. There is something about capturing that process that gives me joy. I have been able to bring that same joy to other forms of music I have captured as well. I have also shot live concerts for TV, and that same quality of improvisation that the musicians bring to the stage is what is required of us behind the camera. It’s a thrilling ride for the time it lasts. I get an adrenaline rush from it. There is also something of a selfish motivation behind it all, the desire to own something special at a given performance, something that belongs to me. Since I have no musical aptitude whatsoever, the next best thing are the photographs I can create at a show. In that same vein, I always try to photograph each show as its own thing. That usually means different vantage points and angles of moments. I hate the feeling of having images looking too familiar or similar. Every artist deserves their own special treatment. 
 
Intimate moment in the crowd

TIA: I’ve noticed that apart from the musicians performing, you sometimes focus on the quiet moments on the stage, as well as intimate encounters between concertgoers, and subtle things that most people wouldn’t even notice, like the hands of someone in a crowd or close ups on valves of a trumpet and sheets of music. It’s quite a bit different from the typical shots you see from the photo pit. How would you describe your live music shooting style?

Henry: Generally I am interested in creating some kind of document of an event. The music doesn’t just begin when the musicians take to the stage. It begins before that. Sometimes with the crowd’s interactions with one another, sometimes it is the setup on the stage both before and after a show. Every element contributes to what the show experience turns out to be. There are moments during a show when a crowd is so hyped there is nothing else to do but to point the camera in their direction. A band like Fishbone will always get a crowd bent out of shape, so I simply wait for the magic to happen and get me some of that. Sometimes it is a practical decision. There are some vantage points where the crowd gets in shots, so why not use them as part of the picture in an aesthetically pleasing way instead of fighting it? It sometimes adds interest to a concert photo. I like the idea of documenting as much of the experience as possible.
 
Fans from Zimbabwe wave their flag while waiting for Oliver Mtukudzi to take the stage

TIA: I’ve had this conversation with other live music photographers, and many say that shooting African musicians is usually a smoother experience than shooting popular western musicians in that there is usually less red tape and obstacles to jump through to gain access to work with them, even with big name African musicians. The sentiment is that African musicians are more receptive and friendlier to photographers. Has this been your experience?

Henry: I would tend to agree with that sentiment. I think it has a lot to do with the commercial nature of live music. I might be generalizing a bit here, but I think when African musicians perform, especially abroad, they are thankful for an audience, and in many cases, a new audience. Even though they may be getting paid to be on stage, it seems they get more out of interacting with the audience and the photographers, like having a captive audience and telling them a story for the first time. Even when it is a song for which they may be particularly well known, they keep it fresh and alive, compared with some other artists where it begins to feel like they are just going through the motions. Maybe I am being unfair, but that is my take.
 
Femi Kuti at Webster Hall

TIA: Who have been the most memorable African musicians you’ve photographed in concert?

Henry: I would say two: one for sentimental reasons, the other for its energy. The first is a collective called Faaji Agba. They are a group of older Nigerian musicians who had their heyday as individual artists in the 60s and 70s and came together more recently as a group, sort of like the Buena Vista Social Club. I am glad I got the opportunity to shoot them twice. Three of the members of the collective have since passed away, so I feel like I have a piece of them in their original iteration. I hope they continue as a collective and add newer members to replace the ones who have since departed. The second show was a Femi Kuti concert in New York at Webster Hall. He left so much sweat on the stage. His band was tight and the energy in the audience was amazing. It was a packed house and I think the audience would willingly have stayed for another hour. It was electric and I love the pictures I got from that show.

TIA: Are you working on any projects at the moment?

Henry: I am currently working on a Spike Lee movie. As yet, it’s untitled. It is the project for which he raised money through Kickstarter during the summer. It’s great to see him put in the same energy and dedication as he would for one that had a larger budget. Look out for it sometime next year.

TIA: Thank you for your time Henry.

Henry: You are most welcome Atane, and thank you for chatting with me. Stay well, my friend.

For more on Henry Adebonojo, visit his websites:

Main site

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Concert photography