JD ‘Okhai Ojeikere, one of Africa’s most prominent photographers, has died in Lagos, Nigeria, aged 83, BBC News reports. Ojeikere is perhaps best known for his series of over a thousand black and white photos of African hairstyles, which combine an anthropological eye with an formalism of composition which rendered the hair designs almost architectural in style. Massimiliano Gioni included the photographer in last year’s Venice Biennale, and Roger M. Buergel curated the artist’s work into his 2007 Documenta exhibition. Having first picked up a camera aged 20, Ojeikere joined the Western Nigerian Broadcasting Services in 1959, before moving to Lagos in 1963. The Hairstyle series dates back to the late 1960s after he joined the Nigerian Arts Council and began documenting the country’s culture.
4 February 2014
