A while ago, a wrote a bit of micro-fiction called living things. A five hundred word exploration into something I had toyed with for years. The lived experience of objects. I guess this thought process may have inspired Toy Story so it’s nothing new. But, I believe that history is stored in things, a romantic idea but it’s one I hold on to. I feel the same way about buildings. Walls have ears and they keep records. It’s a fun pastime to look up old buildings and read about who lived there and what they were like. I don’t have much success in Lagos because record-keeping is poor but the Facade Nigeria is doing an amazing job. They have an archival page on Instagram and a great podcast.
I happened to intern in Lagos Island for most of November 2021. Once my dad heard about it, he couldn’t stop talking about how he would walk to the docks of Marina to buy foreign goods. He painted such a vivid picture of it and I wish so badly that he had pictures. As much as I knew Lagos Island is home to interesting buildings, making a daily commute to work through its narrow streets I appreciate it more for all that it was. Over three weeks, I took dozens of pictures. Sometimes I would come down from the bus, sometimes I would take them by doing the dangerous act of sticking my phone through the windows. Some were taken from the inside of my office building Some were taken on short walks to get lunch around my office building.
This is in no way an absolute representation of Lagos Island. A large chunk of the photos are from Popo Aguda-where the Brazilian returned resettled, Igbosere and Tinunbu. I hope that someday there will be proper photographic and written archival of the buildings of Lagos Island. The disregard of the Nigerian government for these histories is evident not only in their refusal to provide funds for the maintenance of historic or notable buildings but also in its regular approval for their demolishing. The recent demolishing of the Ilojo bar and the Campos house is tragic and hopefully, similar historical buildings don’t meet a similar fate.
You may recognise many of these buildings, Methodist Church, Da Rochas’ Water House, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Headquarters. Some of them are not well known and might even seem unremarkable. I took pictures of everything that piqued my interest.
I learned many things while taking these pictures. One is that architectural photography is hard. I wish I was more skilful so I could have taken better pictures. Two is that I didn’t mind getting stared at if I’m doing something I’m interested in. I know this because I got stared at a lot while taking pictures. I also got quite many few questions. Someone asked if I was a journalist, and I also got asked if I was a lawyer or sent by lawyers. Considering I’m studying to become one, that was a funny question. I said no and the person still asked me not to take pictures of his family house. I didn’t. Three is that if you ask, people are willing to help. When I got over my nervousness about asking, the people I asked were willing to give me an anecdotal history of the buildings I was taking pictures of.
I’d still love to take a tour of the Brazilian quarters. There’s a paid tour being offered by REDAC Tours and I found them through Oluwalanu, a Nigerian travel content creator. You can watch a recording of her tour on YouTube.
I made a reel of the photos with a film filter that people liked. You can watch it here. When I finally get my hands on a film camera, I’m going to go back and photograph the buildings in film. If anyone has access to pictures of Marina’s docks before the walls went up, please let send them my way.
I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them.
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