Yagazie Emezi is a multidisciplinary artist in photography, textile and sculpture focused on unearthing global patterns of inequity from an indigenous point of view. Her practice is informed by her extensive background in photojournalism covering global issues around corruption, environmental failure, and the extension of colonial policies into current international relations. 

Yagazie’s recent works are rooted in stories of identity and cultural preservation, integrating traditional motifs and practices with contemporary artistic techniques. Art portfolio available upon request

Yagazie is a recipient of the 2018 inaugural Creative Bursary Award from Getty Images and a 2018 grant from the U.S Consulate General in Lagos for her photographs addressing the reality of sexual violence against women and the vulnerable young in Nigeria. Yagazie was among the 2019 inaugural artists selected for Kehinde Wiley's art residency at Black Rock, Senegal, was 2019 nominee of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and the first black African woman to photograph for National Geographic Magazine. In 2020, she was awarded The National Geographic Storytelling Grant to complete ‘Another Tale By Moonlight’. She was shortlisted for the 2023 Contemporary African Photography Prize and the German Peace Prize for Photography. Yagazie has exhibited her works around the world in various galleries and museums including an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, ‘New Photography’ 2023.

AWARDS/SHORTLISTS

2024  Moving Narrratives Fellowship Award by Prince Claus (shortlist)                          

2023  The Contemporary African Photography Prize (shortlist)            

2023  German Peace Prize for Photography (shortlist), Museumsquartier Osnabrück

2020  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 Studies Department 


EXHIBITIONS

2024  World UnSeen, by CanonUK, Somerset House, London, UK. 

2024  Megacities, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.                      

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, 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

2024 Take Your Photography to the Next Level, Africa No Filter 

2023 Building Your Portfolio, Museum of the African Diaspora MoAD.        

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 MOMAArtX     

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 AgeFCAEA & Everyday Africa, Nairobi, Kenya     

2016 Narratives Through Photography, Social Media Week Lagos

2015 Limitations to Exploring Photography Off the Streets, Rele Gallery. Lagos, Nigeria                                                                                                                                                                                              


RESIDENCIES

2024 Jnane Tamsna Creatives in Residence Programme, Marrakech, Morocco.          

2019 Black Rock Artist Residency, Dakar, Senegal 


PUBLISHED WORKS

2024 How Is Climate Change Affecting Teenagers?, The New York Times Magazine

2024 How Queer and Nonconformist Creators Are Redefining What It Means To Be

Nigerian, National Geographic

2024 Slowing Baby Boom Means Breaking With Past, The New York Times

2024 Need Therapy? In West Africa, Hairdressers Can Help, The New York Times

2024 Inside Artist Yinka Shonibare’s Lagos Retreat for Creatives, Architectural Digest

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







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