The Ministry of Truth, which concerned itself with news, entertainment, education, and the fine arts. The Ministry of Peace, which concerned itself with war. The Ministry of Love, which maintained law and order. And the Ministry of Plenty, which was responsible for economic affairs. Their names, in Newspeak: Minitrue, Minipax, Miniluv, and Miniplenty..” George Orwell 1984 Part one, Chapter One.

LagosPhoto is the first and only international arts festival of photography in Nigeria. The festival presents photography as it is embodied in the exploration of historical and contemporary issues, the promotion of social programmes, and the reclamation and engagement of public spaces in showcasing contemporary photography.

This year’s theme, Regimes of Truth, examines the search for and the presentation of truth in contemporary society by drawing on inspiration from the works of nineteenth and twentieth century thinkers, writers and philosophers who offered insights into our contemporary society’s information overload and truth quagmire. Intellectuals and writers such as Flaubert, Foucault, Orwell, Huxley and Achebe prophetically offered poignant insights into our current socio-political and cultural conundrum where access to information and substantive facts are in conflict. The 2017 edition of LagosPhoto Festival calls to reflect on these regimes of truths and beliefs, and the fading relevance of the quest for reality in our time.

Contemporary photography has become the new repository of the fading quest for reality, not by virtue of its supposed freedom, but because it embodies the synthesis and unmasks the contradictions of fact and reality in society but also by its imperative for creativity. It is our point of interdependence and the most democratic tool for social engagement today. This is evidenced by the ease of and ubiquity of images today.

Under these conceptual premises, the curatorial team at LagosPhoto led by artistic director Azu Nwagbogu will gather established and emerging artists whose work, ironically, subtly or brutally unveil the dissemination of power and the unfolding of new irreverential global logic at work in the construction of subjectivities as fragmented, euphoric beings.

As is usual with LagosPhoto, there will be no boundaries or bias based on photographic approach. Historical work, archival material, reportage, collage, conceptual and non-conceptual image based approach will be considered by the curatorial team. The list of participating artists and photographers will be published soon on www.lagosphotofestival.com.

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http://www.lagosphotofestival.com/