NIA ADEBAYO — LAGOS, NIGERIA

"Before I knew I wanted to be a photographer, I was already paying attention to light."

Nia grew up in Abeokuta, in a house where the afternoon light moved across the same wall every day at the same hour — long enough that she started noticing it before she had a word for why. She moved to Lagos for a degree in visual communication, and picked up a camera somewhere in the middle of it, mostly to have an excuse to keep looking.

She spent her first professional years photographing musicians and cultural events around Lagos, before editorial work, weddings, documentary projects and international assignments followed — first slowly, then all at once. She still shoots the way she started: paying attention first, and photographing second.