Yagazie Emezi is a Nigerian artist and self-taught photojournalist focused on stories surrounding African women and their health, sexuality, education and human rights. Having worked extensively across Africa, Yagazie also covers stories on identity and culture, social justice, climate change and migration.
Her art practice uses photography and sculpture to construct visual critiques of Nigeria's socio-political state and the roles media play in it, pulling from history and current events.
She began her journey in 2015 and has since worked with Al-Jazeera, New York Times, Vogue, Newsweek, Inc. Magazine, TIME, The Guardian, Washington Post, National Geographic, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Weather Channel, New York Times Magazine and several not-for-profit organizations. After ten months in Monrovia, Liberia (2017) documenting the impact of education for girls in at-risk communities, Yagazie returned to her ongoing project Re-learning Bodies which explores how trauma survivors, outside the narrative of violence and abuse, adapt to their new bodies while marking the absence of an effusive culture around body positivity as a noteworthy cultural phenomenon. Through 2018 - 2019, Yagazie documented patrols at sea through Liberia, Gabon and Namibia with the non-profit Sea Shepherd, recording government efforts to protect marine wildlife from Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) activities.
Yagazie is a recipient of the 2018 inaugural Creative Bursary Award from Getty Images. A participant for the 2018 New York Portfolio Review, she has also been featured by British Journal of Photography, Huffington Post, i-D, Nieman Reports, Paper Magazine, Vogue, CNN and The Washington Post. In November of 2018, she received a grant from the U.S Consulate General in Lagos for her photo-series addressing the reality of sexual violence against women and the vulnerable young in Nigeria. In 2019, she became the first black African woman to photograph for National Geographic Magazine and is a National Geographic Explorer Grantee. Yagazie was among the 2019 inaugural artists selected for Kehinde Wiley's art residency at Black Rock, Senegal and is a 2019 nominee to the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. She is a contributor to Everyday Africa and a member of its advisory board. In 2020, she became a Canon ambassador and is a 2021 mentor at the Women Photograph 2021 Mentorship Program. She has exhibited herworks around the world in various galleries and museums with the most exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, ‘New Photography’ 2023, curated by OluremiOnabanjo.
Yagazie is based between Nigeria and USA and is available for assignments.
PUBLICATIONS
2023 Fleeing Generals at War and Violent Militias, Many Say ‘We’re Not Coming Back, New York Times
2023 She founded an Afghan girls school. Now she runs it in exile in Rwanda, National Geographic
2023 See scenes from classic fairy tales—with a Nigerian twist, National Geographic
2023 Sartorial Subversion: Upstarts and Start-ups in Sub-Saharan Africa, National Geographic
2023 Tour Artist Kehinde Wiley’s Quiet Creative Haven in Lagos, Nigeria, Architectural Digest
2022 Earth Now Has 8 Billion People—and Counting, National Geographic
2022 Meet The 7 Lagos-Based Talents Leading The Charge in Next-Wave Design,Architectural Digest
2022 Nets, Buoys, Salt, Ice. For West African Fishermen, ‘Everything’ Is Going Up,New York Times
2022 Abused and abandoned, three women share their stories of pregnancy withschizophrenia., CNN
2021 A Community on Lagos Island is Being Swallowed By the Sea, CNN
2021 Wole Soyinka is Not Going Anywhere, New York Times
2021 The Fisherwomen, Chevron and The Leaking Pipe, New York Times
2021 The Nigerian Activist Trying to Sell Plants to the Oil Company That Destroyed Them, New York Times
2021 Life Expectancy Disparities in Three Countries, New York Times
2021 In Nigeria, ‘Feminist’ Was a Common Insult. Then Came the Feminist Coalition, New York Times
2021 Crossing the Niger River, Inch by Painful Inch, Hour by Wasted Hour, New York Times
2021 A Continent Where the Dead Are Not Counted, New York Times
2020 No Generation Is As Strong As Today’s Youth”, Vogue
2020 In Nigeria, When Will Justice Catch Up With the Present?, Vogue
2020 Police Took Their Son Away. Then the Merchants of Hope Showed Up, New York Times
2020 Coronavirus in Nigeria: Living through a Pandemic, The Washington Post
2019 Nigeria Enlists Big Beverage Companies to Fight Plastic Waste, Bloomberg Businessweek
2019 How Women Are Stepping Up To Remake Rwanda, National Geographic
2019 The Migrants Who Return Home, New York Times
2019 Confessions of a Hit Squad, New York Times
2019 The New Daughters of Africa, New Internationalist
2018 Exodus: The Climate Migration Crises. Forced Out, The Weather Channel
2018 Taking the Pulse of Nigerian Style, The New York Times
2018 The Voyages Issue, The New York Times Magazine
2018 Next Generation Leaders, Time Magazine
2018 Health Special: Out of Africa, Newsweek
2018 A Sense of Place, Huck Magazine
2017 The Ease of Monrovia’s ‘Hipco’ Clubs, New York Times
2017 Why We Need More Visual Journalists and Editors of Color, Nieman Reports
2017 30 Photographers Re-Picturing A Continent, Everyday Africa
2016 Photographer’s Guide to Lagos, Format Magazine
EXHIBITIONS
2023 New Photography 2023, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA
2023 Lean On Me, Kó Art Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria
2023 German Peace Prize For Photography, Museumsquartier Osnabrück, Germany
2023 A Wa Nibi: Archiving the Queer Experience of the Past and Present for the Future, Òbòdò in collaboration with Kampabnagel, Lagos, Nigeria
2023 Reverie, DADA Gallery, Lagos, Nigeria
2022 The New Black Vanguard, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
2022 Dakar Biennale, Dakar, Senegal
2021 Self-Addressed, Curated by Kehinde Wiley, Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, LA, USA
2021 The Rising Exhibition, Alara, Lagos, Nigeria
2021 Ideologies, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
2021 I am Not a Goddess ... Unless I Say I am, Amar Singh Gallery
2020 Just Pictures, Projects + Gallery, Saint Louis, USA
2019 African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Mali
2019 The Female Lens, Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York
2019 Relearning Bodies, Hamwe Festival, Kigali, Rwanda (solo show)
2019 HERE, Alliance Francais, Lagos, Nigeria (solo show)
2018 Present and Forgotten, Vlisco&Co, Art Twenty One, Lagos, Nigeria
2018 Festival Pil’ours, Saint Gilles Croix de Vie, France
2017 Insider/Outsider, Women Photograph Photoville, NYC
2017 Body Talk, Refinery29 Photoville, NYC
2017 Re-picturing a Continent, Alliance Francais, Nairobi, Kenya
2016 LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph, Charlottesville, USA
2016 The Everyday Projects at FotoIstanbul, Istanbul, Turkey
TALKS
2023 Perspective, National Geographic Storytelling Seminar
2023 Building Your Portfolio, Museum of the African Diaspora MoAD.
2022 A Gaze, Ever Young, In Conversation with James Barnor, In partnership with MOMA, ArtX
2021 Expanding Your Vision, Everyday Projects
2021 Emancipative Bodies, Ray Festival, Germany
2020 Exploring Identity & Culture Through Art, CreativeLive
2020 Beyond Criticism To Action: Pushing The African Visual Identity Discourse Forward, Homecoming & Browns
2019 Environmental Changes & Risks To Women's Health, University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda
2019 Chronic Conditions: Knowing, Seeing & Healing the Body in Global Africa, University of Kansas
2018 Fast Forward: Women in Photography. Lagos Photo Festival. Lagos, Nigeria
2018 Guest Lecture, Parsons School of Design. New York, USA
2017 Rethinking Creation in the Digital Age, FCAEA & Everyday Africa, Nairobi, Kenya
2016 Narratives Through Photography, Social Media Week Lagos
2015 Limitations to Exploring Photography Off the Streets, Rele Gallery. Lagos, Nigeria
2015 Connecting to the Consumer, What We Know and How to Utilize it, Mobile West Africa. Lagos, Nigeria
AWARDS/SHORTLISTS
2023 The Contemporary African Photography Prize (shortlist).
2023 German Peace Prize for Photography (shortlist), Museumsquartier Osnabrück2020 Creative Residency Community Fund, Adobe
2020 Exploration Grant, National Geographic
2019 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative (shortlist)
2018 U.S Consulate Grant, The United States Consulate General Lagos
2018 Emerging Photographer Grant, Getty Images
2017 Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of New Mexico, African StudiesDepartment
FOR DETAILED WORK EXPERIENCE AND COMMISSIONS, REQUEST FULL CV