PHOTOJOURNALISTKUNLE OGUNFUYI
Capture capture capture from the soul…
Kunle Ogunfuyi: Nigerian Photojournalist & Documentary Photographer
Kunle Ogunfuyi is an award-winning Nigerian photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Lagos. His photography focuses on people, culture, and civic life. Through lifelike images, he places viewers inside each scene. The result is direct, human, and immediate.
Training and Early Career
Ogunfuyi studied General Art at Yaba College of Technology in 2005. He later studied Photography at the New York Institute of Photography in 2011. From 2006 to 2007, he worked as photo editor of National Pride Magazine. In 2007, he joined the THISDAY group. These editorial roles shaped his documentary style. They taught him timing, narrative, and visual clarity.
International Recognition
In 2009, Kunle Ogunfuyi gained international attention. The Noor|Nikon Documentary Photography Project selected him as one of fifteen emerging African photographers. That same year, he won the Pa J.D. Ojeikere Award for Photography from the Society of Nigeria Artists. The award was for his series “Oko Baba.” The project documented communities often missed by mainstream media.
Awards and Notable Work
Recognition continued through the 2010s. In 2010, he received the Ojo Signature Gallery Art & Culture Humanitarian Icon Award. Ben Bosah Books also featured him in 101 Nigerian Artists. In 2011, the New York Institute of Photography gave him an Award of Merit.
2012 marked a turning point. At the Nigeria Photography Awards, Kunle won two top honors. He received Most Outstanding Photograph of the Year and Best Documentary Photography. Both awards were for “Lagos Survival.” The series documents urban adaptation and survival in Lagos. It remains one of his most referenced bodies of work.
Exhibitions and Impact
Since his first solo show at the National Museum, Onikan in 2013, Ogunfuyi’s work has had curatorial impact. His documentation of Nigeria’s 2012 subsidy removal protests is used as a visual case study. It appears in academic and curatorial research. His protest and civic space photography has been exhibited at Yusuf Grillo Art Gallery and Yaba Art Museum. He has also shown in many group exhibitions.
His documentation of the national uprising against fuel subsidy removal has been referenced in academic and curatorial contexts.
Current Practice
Kunle Ogunfuyi lives and works in Lagos. He continues to document change and continuity across West Africa. Through careful framing and long-term engagement, he builds an archive of memory, identity, and place. His documentary photography captures real moments with clarity and respect.
