The Inaugural Edition Of The Lagosphoto Biennial By The African Artists' Foundation

Under the artistic direction of Azu Nwagbogu, founder of the African Artists’ Foundation, the 2025 biennial explores the theme ‘Incarceration’, delving into the visible and hidden dimensions of captivity that manifest across personal, political, and collective life.

Opening Preview: October 24, 2025 | 5 – 9 PM

On View: October 25 – November 29, 2025

After fifteen years of championing photography as a platform for exchange and critical reflection, the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) is proud to inaugurate the LagosPhoto Biennial, on view from October 25 – November 29, 2025.

This new chapter signals LagosPhoto’s growth in providing an expanded space for deeper reflection, diverse programming, and wider impact. Under the theme of ‘Incarceration’, the 2025 biennial will explore the many forms–imposed by the self or by others–that continue to threaten subjugated peoples in their efforts to shape their futures and consider how images can serve as tools for enacting, cracking, and reimagining carceral systems.

The biennial will unfold across multiple venues in Lagos and Ibadan. Its core projects will be presented at various locations in Lagos, such as the AAF space, reopening after a two-year closure, the newly inaugurated Nahous Gallery within the historic Federal Palace complex (a key venue for the FESTAC celebrations of 1977, and where Nigeria’s Declaration of Independence was signed in 1960); and Freedom Park, situated on the grounds of country’s first colonial prison, repurposed as a civic common. Additional locations in Lagos include the Didi Museum, hosting short film screenings and panel discussions; Alliance Française, which will feature institutional exhibitions; and Madhouse and 16x16 Gallery, where workshops will take place.  As the Biennial’s footprint extends beyond Lagos to include Ibadan—a historic center and capital of Oyo State—the New Culture Studio designed by Demas Nwoko in 1970 is activated for works that explore the urban and architectural dimensions of incarceration. 

LagosPhoto continues AAF’s exploration of the scope of photography, embracing media forms and apparatuses beyond the limits of a camera’s frame and cycles. Artists’ work spans figurative, abstract, scenic, and still-life genres; manifests through printed, sculptural, woven, dyed, and performative forms; engages media including image, film, sound, text, installation, and archival material; and employs manual, digital, terrestrial, and ancestral technologies. Works on show test photography as a device for dialectical freedom and control, and image-making both within and beyond colonial constructs of the camera.

LagosPhoto Biennial is sponsored by the Ministry of Art and Tourism, National Geographic, Canon, Open Society Foundations, and Nahous Gallery. LagosPhoto 25 is carried out with support from local creative houses Kòbọmọjẹ́ Artist Residency (K-AiR), Madhouse, and Wunika Mukan Gallery.

Please find the programming of the opening weeks here.