Photography finalists celebrate Nigeria heritage

People's choice award: 1004 Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos. Credit: Ikenna Ogbenta

9mobile, Nigeria’s fourth largest telecommunication company, launched the 9mobile Photography Competition with the aim of meeting its corporate objective of promoting creative and talent development among Nigerians.

The trio, Ihemebiri, Otitoola and Omotosho were selected from the list of ‘Top 100’ by a jury based on quality, creativity and relevance of their entries. The jury comprising Hakeem Saalam, Kola Oshalusi and Kunle Awolowo – who are all accomplished international photographers – will carry out a final review of the shortlisted images and thereafter announce the winner and the two runners-up.

Ogbenta emerged as the winner of the Voters’ Choice having earned the highest number of votes during the online voting for his entry, Skies and Scrapers, a slanted image of one of the 1004 Estate towers at Victoria Island, Lagos standing against a beautiful blue sky.

Prizes will be awarded to the winner, runners-up and Voter’s Choice winner during the winning announcement this month.

Speaking about how the competition has fared, director, brands and experience, 9mobile, Elvis Ogiemwanye, expressed delight at the high level of interest and participation which the competition generated this year, and commended the participants for the creativity and quality of their entries.

“We are very excited by the volume of entries that were received this year. The 2017 9mobile Photography Competition was keenly contested, and this further affirms 9mobile’s leadership position in actively engaging our subscribers, especially the youth by enabling and encouraging them to express their talents.

“At 9mobile, we are totally committed to the growth of Nigeria’s creative industry by promoting talent development across arts, literature, science, sports and entertainment segments. We have and will continue to explore ways we can support talent mining to better position and empower our subscribers to give them the needed edge to succeed.”

This year’s edition of the annual 9mobile Photography Competition kicked off on August 7 with a call for entries, which closed onSeptember 11. The competition serves as a platform to discover, reward and empower budding photographers to fulfill their passion and capture compelling images that celebrate the Nigerian heritage.