Kamal Obatoyinbo made a recent comeback at the Dolapo Obat Gallery situated at Habiba Plaza on Osun crescent in Maitama. An astounding facet of the Obat’s is photography.
Born in Kano, where he spent his first two years, he believes the greatest highlights of living can be captured with a camera as he has no memories of Kano.
To the young Obat, photography was a way to feel excited about the past, over time a series of pictures can become more than a visual diary.
It is proof of having existed in a corner of the earth for however short your stay was and more importantly it can give memories to others.
In the last decade he drifted between Abuja, Malaysia, England and Lagos.
Photography serves as a beautiful escape, a nice way to get out of your head and be enthralled with the world around you.
It could provide a thrill of 5 minutes or 10 but he always considers them worth it.
Leicester, one of the most ancient cities in the UK , with roots as far back as the Iron age was where he called home in 2016. The River Soar and the Grand Union Canal are scenic views from its 150 acre Waterside. Clarendon Park adds to the cultural landscape of the old city with its greenery. After a year, surrounded by old architecture, grafitis and flowers, Kamal’s innate drive to document simple observed moments calling at us to be noticed was rewarded with a Canon EOS 1300d, a DSLR.
As an expert in Cyber Security, he discovered a platform which was safe, protecting images from being downloaded by unauthorized parties. This app was created by Joel Flory and Greg Lutze; Visual Supply Company (VSCO) offering quality pictures as well as professional grade presets. VSCO morphed into a world class creative community, without a like count it allows you to create photography for yourself.
There was freedom here which constitutes much of his photography education and he began to carve a niche for himself with a 5 photos a day challenge.
There are many rules when learning photography, layers of editing to define a picture. He studied the works of Ahmed Almajiri, Prince Gyasi (who is so colorful) and Gordon Sparks, a Human rights photographer, whose images often seem effortless.
His creative processes are quite spontaneous, they include routine street walks, hikes as well as quality time spent with friends and family. He is known as that person in a group always ready to take photos of silly moments and most often he is able to do this without them knowing. The real work is usually the selection process (not later than a day after the shoot so he has a clear head) and then editing(which takes more days after the selection has been concluded).
An early inspiration is Steve Mccurry; an American photographer, freelancer and photojournalist who has covered armed conflict in the middle east, his ‘Afghan girl’ of a girl with piercing green eyes has appeared severally on the National geographic magazine.
Kamal is currently in love with street photography, especially Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York. He still struggles with talking to strangers but would love to do something similar in Lagos.
Kamal made his breakthrough in 2018 at an exhibition by Neem Foundation which was centered on mental health awareness, the following year he exhibited at the Kaduna Art and Book festival, which cemented him in the creative community.
In 2020 he was part of the virtual exhibition at the Dolapo Obat’s gallery during Abuja Art Week and more recently had his works on display at The DART art stage by Dolapo Obat.
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