When the dial was cast for the three brave photographers on the National Geographic Channel assignment to discover South Africa through their lenses, Lola Akinmade Åkerström, Nigerian born Sweden-based award-winning photographer, hoped her passion would speak for her.
Her passion lies with discovering people and their culture, documenting scenic and landscape images with a view of encouraging people to discover and appreciate the world around and away from them.
While Stephen Alvarez and Heather Perry, other photographers on the assignment, covered the Drakensburg mountains and caves, and the outdoor swimming and water-based lifestyles around Capetown, respectively, Lola explored and covered Durban and the surrounding KwaZulu-Natal region.
Truly, Durban and the surrounding KwaZulu-Natal region have not been discovered or documented before like the way Lola presented them in this assignment. This time, she was able to tell more stories and trailed more beauties along the coast, in the hinterland and in the metropolitan city than her previous works in Cambodia, Nicaragua and Sweden.
Focusing mostly on travel and street photography, Lola captured people in their natural environment going about their daily lives, travel portraits, especially capturing those glimmers of joy regardless of a person’s individual status, struggles, and successes.
She was at home with Zulu people and their culture. The pictures speak more of a people committed to harmonious and progressive living, despite everyday challenges they face in eking a living for themselves.
But the presentation of the sophisticated Durban cosmopolitan city and picturing its over three million people living harmoniously despite their religious, political and ethnic differences is something to delight in.
Her presentation project Durban as a city that embraces everything and everyone besides a rich collage of shared history. Her pictorial journey into soaring peaks, never-ending beaches and eye-wateringly beautiful views of the Indian Ocean is awesome.
Yet, the she brings you to meet vibrant pockets of communities along the way, discovering further, fascinating trails and history buried in the rich Zulu culture. As she noted before the expedition: “I wanted to go into the project as objectively as I could and capture the people, their spirit, and lifestyle as transparently as I could”, she truly captured all these. She worked on her strengths as a travel photographer coupled with the fact that Durban and KwaZulu-Natal region are she natural fit.
So far, “Through the Lens campaign”, according to her, allow people to follow along and discover various aspects of South Africa through the eyes of a National Geographic photographer. Beyond that, people, according to her, would connect with certain aspects of the country and culture, connect with and explore it in depth through one or all of the photographers work, and hopefully be personally intrigued to come visit and spend some time getting beneath the culture and travelling around South Africa on their own.
“I personally had an amazing time traveling around KwaZulu-Natal. The people I met were warm, generous, and inviting, and as a travel photographer, being able to connect with people truly boils down to acknowledging people, respecting their culture, and having a genuine interest in their everyday lives and stories” she noted.
OBINNA EMELIKE
