Uche Okpa-Iroha
Uche Okpa-Iroha is doctoral student with interest in exploring the development of modes and theories of representation, as they have been constructed historically but as they hold purpose and relevance for artists and scholars interrogating their societies in the 21st century. His research also focuses, in similar ways that motivated his photography project The Plantation Boy. Such research will probe artistic responses to the transatlantic dislocation/relocation of Africans (pre-slavery and now) to the Americas and Europe. Okpa-Iroha is the Founder and Director of Lagos-based informal photography school, The Nlele Institute. He is a founding member of the Nigerian photography group known as the Blackbox Photography Collective and a founding member of the Invisible Borders Trans-African photography travel group in 2009. He is a two - time winner of the Grand Prix Seydou keita Award for the best photography creation at the 8th and 10th Bamako Encounters with the “Under Bridge Life” and “the Plantation Boy” projects in 2009 and 2015 respectively. He also a recipient of the Jean Paul Blachere prize in 2009 and the Callanan Excellence in Teaching Award by Center Santa Fe, New Mexico USA in 2022. Okpa-Iroha is an ex-resident and alumnus of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2011- 2012). He co-founded the photography and video art night of projections – FOTOPARTY Lagos and the Lagos Portfolio Review. Okpa-Iroha is also the founder of Lagos Open Range Exhibition Project.