Conversations with Iké Udé: A Look into Nollywood Portraits

Genevieve Nnaji, Alexx Ekubo, & Osas Ighodaro. These Nigerian celebrities are just a few out of 64 alluring subjects in artist Iké Udé’s Nollywood Portraits: A Radical Beauty.  If any of these names sound familiar to you, then chances are you are one out of millions addicted to one of Nigeria’s proudest exports; Nollywood.

Nollywood’s origins date back pre and post independent Nigeria. Like most theatrical movements, it started on the stage with theater productions and later 35mm films were born. However, it was the 90’s when Nollywood started to really take off. Digital recording equipment prices began to drop and savvy directors became entrepreneurs.  In 1993 the Igbo language VHS tape of Chris Obirapu’s “Living in Bondage” took Nigeria by storm and started to cement Nollywood’s status as a viable industry.

Today Nollywood is the biggest employer of labour, only second to agriculture providing more than 1 million jobs. Over 2,000 films are produced a year making it the second largest producer of feature films in the world. This makes it second to Bollywood and right ahead of Hollywood.  Annually, the films gross $600 million making up 5% of the GDP of Nigeria.

While the films you’re familiar with can cost upwards of millions of dollars, Nollywood films cost roughly $25,000 to produce.  Due to its intense popularity, it’s clear that there’s much more to Nollywood than the budget.  Take away the glitz and the glam, and you have endearing stories that will last a lifetime.

My Intro to Nollywood

Before writing this post, I thought it would be best to completely immerse myself in the subject. In the name of research, I watched several hours of Netflix. Initially, I thought I would watch 1 or 2 movies. However, after reading intriguing plot descriptions I found myself adding another film to the queue. By my third movie, I became hooked on Nollywood.

One film I watched was about a serial killer who targeted virgin women in the village. Another film was about a girl whose boyfriend dumped her; she then goes on a mission to win him back by dating a movie star.

Each film was missing the bells and whistles of a major Hollywood blockbuster. There weren’t explosions engulfing the room with my surround sound. Skin wasn’t impeccably doll-like with layers and layers of makeup. Hair wasn’t always impeccably coiffed.  At times you could even see tiny beads of sweat dripping from the actor’s faces.

The stories are authentic, and at times it can be a little over the top but I’m sure we can find a bit of ourselves in Nollywood.

Nollywood at its core is raw, endearing, and timeless.

Iké Udé: The Photographer

What better person, than artist Iké Udé to capture the timeless and elegant beauty of Nollywood. We caught up with him  to learn more about the inspiration behind his Nollywood exhibit, his early influences, and the Nollywood film that we need to add to our Netflix queue.

Without further ado, let’s explore the radical beauty of Nollywood, through the lens of Iké Udé.

TCL: Can you tell us the origins of your love of photography? When did you first fall in love with the art? What was your aha moment when you realized this is what you wanted to do.

TCL: Let’s say we are in a gallery with the work of many photographers. What tells us that we are looking at the photography of Iké Udé?

IU: My pictures are distinctively singular in style, organization, framing, poetics, color, composition,  the intangibles and in sympathy with classicism, the antique, in concert with the contemporary.

TCL: How does early life in Lagos inspire your work? 

IU: Although relatively very young then, my early life in Lagos, Enugu, Port Harcourt, etc., had a lasting influence in my appreciation of dressing, costumes, individual countenance, deportment, sophistication, etc.

TCL: For our readers who have never been to Nigeria, what do you want us to know about Nigeria?

IU: Nigeria is boundless with great talents but miserably failed by their power elite and series of pathetic governments who’re patently tone-deaf to high culture and indifferent to development of the nation and its mass population. There is nary a solid middle-class; thus a horrific chasm between the incredibly wealthy and incredibly poor. It’s disheartening, to say the least, and yet thankfully reversible under the right leadership and visionary.

Nollywood as the Subject

TCL: What made you want to feature Nollywood? 

IU: It’s such a cultural force and the best thing out Africa since the Pyramids, obelisk, Pharoah and the Queens. Nollywood is the first Nigerian made cultural export that has profound hegemony across the African continent.

TCL:  What is something in a Nollywood film that you may not necessarily see in a Hollywood production?

IU: Besides Hollywood’s technical edge, polish from decades of practice, evolution, and perfecting of skills or tools of the trade—there’s basically not much of a difference between the two—they are all in the business of telling stories and are all too human.

TCL: In your earlier work, Sartorial Anarchy you were the subject. In what ways did that project inspire Nollywood?

IU: It helped me to deepen, understand and become even more fluent in solving the inherent problems of organizing and making a picture work excellently.