Photo festival: Africa between village and megacity

Population explosion, metropolitan expansion, the digital revolution - the rapid changes taking place in Africa are also influencing the art scene. There's a new feeling in the air in Africa's megacities and it takes center stage in this year's "Lagos Photo Festival". Musician Keziah Jones strikes a pose for Nigerian photographer Kelechi Amadi-Obo with Lagos as the backdrop.

Until mid-November 2013, more than 50 photographers are presenting their impressions of the process of change now underway in Africa . The "Lagos Photo Festival" is the only international photo exhibition in Nigeria and aims to bring together artists from around the world.

For Afoso Sulayman, the "Lagos Photo Fesitval" is his first exhibition. He comes from Makoko, one of the largest slums in Lagos. It was always Sulayman's dream to become a photographer. "Last year my brother told me about a photo workshop in Makoko," he recalls. Sulayman and 30 others joined the workshop but only he and one other participant completed the six-month course.

The central theme of Sulayman's work is the everyday life of Makoko's residents. Several hundred thousand people are crammed into a very small area. "It all comes down to the fight to earn enough money to survive," Sulayman says. That also applies to him. He cannot make a living from his photography alone.

Sulayman sees his own slum origins as an advantage. He photographs the people as his neighbors and not as strangers. "Many have reservations. I tell them that it's good for people outside to get an impression of life here. And most of them understand that."

The photos of Patrick Willocq are very different to those depicting big city slums. The French photographer spent several months in villages in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo. "I wanted to show the calm, peaceful life that can be found in rural areas. We mostly hear only about the conflict in eastern DRC," Willocq said.

Willocq spent part of his childhood in the Congo. His most famous picture shows how globalization has reached even remote villages. Plastic chairs are a status symbol - a strange development, says Willocq. "Traditional wooden chairs are much more stable, last longer and, above all, they are more comfortable."

Photographer Mohamadou Moustapha Sow puts the spotlight on everyday life in his home country Senegal. Sow is primarily a designer and only takes photos in his spare time. "I really want to show the dynamism and pulsating life in the city of Dakar."

Mouhamadou Moustapha Sow accuses western media of reducing African reality to clichés. When he saw the casing of an old television set lying in the Mauretanian desert, he got the idea for his series of photos. "Pictures can only show a small section of city life," he says "and that's what is expressed with the frame of the TV screen."