By Nehru Odeh
Abel Kayode Otitoju, a Nigerian artist, has won the Shutterstock Impact Award. His collection documenting an outdoor community health outreach for aging men in a Nigerian village won the “Heal” photo category.
The panel of judges praised the collection for its authenticity and emotional warmth. Over 1,000 nominations poured in from contributors worldwide,
Reflecting on the work, Otitoju said: “Together, the images form a human-centered narrative about connection, respect, and the growing importance of accessible community health for older African men.”
Otitoju is a visual storyteller whose journey into the exciting world of photography began on a fine autumn afternoon in 2011, when he stumbled upon an image on his computer screen and wondered how it was created.
His sheer curiosity soon developed into a full-blown, deep-seated passion for creating and capturing moments.
Spurred by this passion, he left Kaduna – a state in north-western Nigeria where he was born and raised – abandoning his certificate in Computer Science and relocating to Lagos, where his horizon in the art of photography was broadened as he constantly taught himself and learned from the images he created and designed; graphic designing being one of his innate potentialities.
As the philosophical photographer that Kayode has grown to become, his works are unique for their abstract nuances in terms of the ideas and concepts that they tend to illustrate. Conceptual photography being his forte, Kayode seeks to tell stories in pictures, one image at a time.
“I was never really good at anything except for the ability to learn,” Otitoju was once quoted as saying.
The inaugural Shutterstock Impact Awards celebrated visual storytellers from around the world whose work highlights diverse, timely topics. Selected by a panel of industry experts, the winning collections included cohesive narratives of people, culture, identity, and change.
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