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Dr. Boye Ola is a Nigerian photojournalist, a member of Guild of Photojournalists of Nigeria, Senior Lecturer and Deputy Provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) with experience in the media and Dramatic Arts Industry.
In this interview, he shares his views with ABIODUN SAHEED OMODARA on the challenges and ethical considerations for photojournalists in Nigeria, among others. Excerpts:
Being a photojournalist, senior lecturer and a deputy provost of NIJ for years, what will you say about the World Photography Day?
Well, World Photography Day is a day set aside by the world photographers to celebrate the emergence of photography as a medium of communication. It was in 1839 when the French government purchased the right from the inventor of the daguerreotype processing, that is, Louis Degas, in partnership with Nips, two French inventors. What their invention did basically, was to make image recording become really permanent. And not only that, the period of acquiring the image becomes faster.
What can you say are the importance of photojournalism in storytelling?
Storytelling nowadays, you hear people say we are in a visual world. We are in a visual world because less emphasis is being placed on textual content in order to make people more accustomed to things they can see. And it is simple. The technology through the internet is the one where people who go online are impatient.
Instead of reading, what they are doing is scanning, hence their impatience has led to many materials not being read. And that indirectly is promoting visual presentation so that when people see something, they immediately know whether it's, what they want to watch or not.
So, visual storytelling is the thing now in the media, especially in more media literate society. In Nigeria, we are still grappling with visual literacy. Not many people are visually literate. Not because they can't see. What we see people doing here more often is that people look but they don't see. And then our visual background did not start in an enlightened state.
Many of us who went to school were taught how to write, how to read. But hardly were we introduced to how to see, which is the bedrock of every visual product. So, calling attention to what photography is, is a way of letting people know the importance of photography in the society.
And also to let people know that through photography, images can be captured that will enhance visual story culture.
Will you say photography or photojournalism has shaped public opinion in the aspect of creating awareness?
Well, if you look at traditional journalism, you hardly find a newspaper without photographs; neither would you see a magazine producing without photographs; which is a show of the importance of photography; not only in the media but in the society because what the media puts for people to consume is actually what they realize that the people want to see.
So, the newspapers have always been promoting good photographs. The magazines have been doing that right from 1920 with the magazine pictures story. Now, we have the internet that is also extending that leverage, making sure that photography is not a neglected art.
The internet is showcasing the best of photography, even though not many people are photographers. But if you compare what we have witnessed with the internet revolution, we've never had this picture deluge. If you go on the internet, everywhere you see on the Instagram, on Facebook, wherever you go, you see photographs, enough of it.
The major challenge now is that even though many people have become photographers, the quality has really not improved. But that is something we all know. As people become more visually literate, those who take photographs will take better photographs.
And those who consume photographs will become discernible in such a way that they will not give any support to things that they don't consider noble, and also things they think have no quality.
What are the challenges of professional photographers and photojournalists in Nigeria?
Well, if we start talking about that, we may not leave this place today, but I will tell you the major thing is the shift from the traditional media of communication to the internet.
The internet is rewriting job schedules. Now, the internet experts, or most media organisations, look forward to a photojournalist who can multitask. Somebody who can take video, who can take audio, who can also write.
More or less somebody who can do a multimedia story. The challenge that most photojournalists are having is that the same media organisations are not in any way helping them in terms of training yet they want the best from them.
But I think quite a number of them are bridging up to the reality by self-learning and then improving their skills in order to be more marketable and also to be able to fit in into the demands of the moment. another challenge is buying of equipment. The equipment is getting more expensive and the income to buy them is not really living up to what we are experiencing.
So a lot of photojournalists have that problem of buying or living up to acquiring more equipment that will make their job easier. But by and large, they will find their way around it and improve as time goes by. Well, technology has redefined everything.
Now, how the media operates in the non-digital era is not what they are doing now. But one basic thing is that for photojournalism, there are digital cameras that are making jobs easier for professionals. First, they can take their pictures and send it to their organisations immediately.
There are many cameras that give in editing facility and there are some that even have Wi-Fi. So basically, it has reduced the time that a photographer will do his job and get them to the office. In reducing the cycle, what it also has done is to enhance the productivity of photojournalists and the newsroom is better for it.
Do you think these new photojournalists really leverage these new technologies at their disposal?
Many do. I remember I told you earlier on that the cost of the equipment is something else.
I recently tried to buy a Nikon full-frame Nikon D810. And here, it's going for about 1.7 million. The question is, how many photographers can afford that? And when you do that, you still have to acquire a series of lenses.
What kind of job in journalism will provide them the money for that in the long run? So, the issues that confront the professionals are really enormous. But I am one who believes that along the line, they will find a way around it and then make do with whatever they have.
As the deputy provost of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, we know that journalism entails some branches, such as print journalism, broadcast journalism, etc.
Do you not think photojournalism should stand on its own as a course that will really be learnt by students?
Well, the students are learning courses in photography and photojournalism. So, the issue of standing alone does not arise. What we do is to expose students to all aspects of communication. News writing, photography, photojournalism, graphics, advertising, editing, and so on. It is from these that we have a well-polished professional that by the time they get to the market, most of the things they will come across will not be strange to them.
And as they advance in their profession, they keep getting better. Mind you, there's a difference between the classroom and outside. But somebody who has been a good student in the classroom will easily find it easy to blend with what is operating in the field.
What's is the role of social media in photojournalism?
Of course, in many ways. One of the modules we teach online is to talk about the importance of social media in journalism. And remember, when you talk about social media, you are talking about an all-encompassing thing. But what we found today is that a good journalist must be knowledgeable about different social media to know the differences among them and to know which one would be most suitable for the kind of job that he does. We know that when it comes to looking for stories, you can do that with Twitter, Now X.
We know that if you want to go into self-publishing, like having your blog, there are some social media platforms that will afford you that opportunity. We know that if it's pictures, storytelling you want to do, we know that the like of Instagram will be good for you. Social media and modern-day journalism have become intertwined in such a way that any professional would be better off learning both. I see social media as a tool to help ease our professionalism.
Do you think the students have real access to photography education?
Well, I don't want to talk generally, but I'll tell you that at NIJ, our students are exposed to different aspects of photography and photojournalism. One thing is to teach, another thing is for those who receive the knowledge to show genuine interest and fly with it.
You cannot, as a lecturer, open anybody's brain and put knowledge there. There must be serious interest from the students. And we've seen some students who are showing that interest because they know that when they go out, that photography is the core aspect of multimedia storytelling.
And if you are not well-oiled in multimedia story, when you go out, you find yourself deficient.
What advice would you give to the students, generally, in terms of photography and photography education?
Well, the first thing I would advise them is to take everything they have been taught seriously. Two, not to limit their photography knowledge to just theory.
They should get the equipment to take pictures. If you don't have DSLR or mirrorless, even with the Android phone, they can start taking good pictures. What I've discovered is that most students, when they take pictures, are just ordinary portraits and selfies.
That should be taken as a beginning. For those who are genuinely or seriously interested in photography, they need to go beyond that. And that is why the exhibition we put up for this World Photography Day today is showcasing the best of photography in terms of people taking pictures that are of interest to them, not portraits.
What would you want the public to know about the World Photography?
What I want them to do is that they should also be taking pictures. And they should know that photojournalism is all about people telling stories with photographs.
That photojournalists are witnesses to what is happening everywhere we cannot be. And that what they take as pictures are, to them, the objective representation of what they witness. But I also want to caution them that not all pictures that they see in the media should be taken as a ghostly truth.
That is where media literacy comes in. Every picture you see, there should be questions to ascertain its originality and its veracity as an authentic medium of communication.
