AKINBIYI, Akinbode; PLATZ-GALLUS, Christoph (ed.)
Sometimes to be lost is to be found and to be found is to be lost anew

The photographer, the wanderer, glides softly in the crush of the everyday, stepping out onto awkwardly paved sidewalks, weaving through crowds, seeking out moments of quiet serendipity. It's in happenstance, coincidence, that the magic becomes immanent, the constantly weaving, liminal threads taking shape, becoming momentarily visible, forming into occurrences that vibrate, are.
—Akinbode Akinbiyi

Akinbode Akinbiyi is not just a photographer; he is also an author, poet, tutor, and chronicler. When it comes to photography, the ephemeral and the ordinary are what catches his eye. Always meandering with his analogue Rolleiflex camera, he explores urban labyrinths, skillfully capturing fleeting moments, situations, and moments in time. Through his lens, he is dedicated to capturing the in-between—fleeting gestures, unusual situations, and transitory moments woven into the fabric of social, often urban, settings.

As Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung put it: “Akinbode Akinbiyi is, by way of photography and poetry, a chronicler of the quotidian. He is interested in 'everydaylifeness' rather than everydayness; two states differentiated by Akinbiyi's profound interest in being-human beings, among other beings, and the way that they craft, navigate, and relate to societies and spaces.”

In preparation for his 2023-24 solo exhibition at Kunstverein Hannover, Akinbiyi spent nearly a year traveling between Berlin—his home of three decades—and Hannover, diving deep into urban rituals, Hannover’s “African Quarter,” revealing the specifics of the city’s colonial past, and continuing his larger series Passageways. Akinbiyi makes visible that which has been overlooked, shines a light on what would otherwise remain hidden. What he captured has been organized into chapters, collections that are far more than mere scrapbooks. They are, in essence, coordinate systems that can be interpreted as the result of an artistic cartography, carefully structured both in space and time. He has mastered the art of street photography, sharing with us that which exists in plain sight. It's just that we don’t see it (anymore). [publishers’ note]

With texts by Akinbode Akinbiyi, Tandazani Dhlakama, Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung Christoph Platz-Gallus.

German + English texts.

Published by Archive Books, 2024
Monographs / Photography