Born in 1930, Ovbiomu, Nigeria.
Died in 2014, Lagos, Nigeria, where he lived and worked.
J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere was raised in a small village in rural southwestern Nigeria. In 1950, he bought a modest Brownie D camera, and a neighbour taught him the rudiments of photography. In 1951, he began seeking work at the Ministry of Information in Ibadan, repeatedly sending the same letter: “I would be very grateful if you would use me for any kind of work in your photographic department.” His persistence paid off in 1954, when he was offered a position as a darkroom assistant.
Just as Nigeria was shedding colonial rule in 1961, he became a still photographer for Television House Ibadan, a division of the Western Nigerian Broadcasting Service, the first television station in Africa. Jazz musician Steve Rhodes was director of programming, and Ojeikere has recalled the spirit of the time: “Just after independence, we were full of ideas and energy. We were going to conquer the world.”
In 1963, he moved to Lagos to work for West Africa Publicity. In 1967, he joined the Nigerian Arts Council, and during their festival the following year he began taking series of photographs dedicated to Nigerian culture. This body of work, now consisting of thousands of images, has become a unique anthropological, ethnographic, and documentary national treasure. Most African photographers of his generation worked only on commission; this project, unique of its kind, developed without any commercial support.
The Hairstyle series, which consists of close to a thousand photographs, is the largest and most comprehensive segment of Ojeikere’s archive. “To watch a ‘hair artist’ going through their precise gestures, like an artist making a sculpture, is fascinating. Hairstyles are an art form,” Ojeikere has commented. He photographed hairstyles daily in the street, in offices, and at parties. He recorded each subject systematically: from the back, sometimes in profile, and occasionally head-on. Those taken from the rear are almost abstract and best reveal the sculptural quality of the hairstyles.
For Ojeikere, this is a never-ending project, as hairstyles evolve with fashion: “All these hairstyles are ephemeral. I want my photographs to be noteworthy traces of them. I always wanted to record moments of beauty, moments of knowledge. Art is life. Without art, life would be frozen.”
Collections
The Museum of Modern Art, New-York, USA
Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, France
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Princeton University Art Museum, USA
Musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, Paris, France
QAGOMA, Brisbane, Australie
The Jorge M. Perez Art Collection, Miami, USA
