Tom Saater: Lagos Behind the Lens

Tom Saater is a documentary photographer and short-film maker from Nigeria. Learning his craft whilst living hand-to-mouth on the streets of Abuja, his work has since been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, University of Oxford, and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Tom has had work featured in The New York Times, The Economist, TIME, Huffington Post, and many others, and is a contributor to the photography collective Everyday Africa.

How did you become interested in photography?
I became interested in photography while living on the streets as a homeless person. I slept very close to a magazine stand near the post office in Abuja. During those times I was exposed to magazines and newspapers which I would use as my bed… so I would wake up with all these images. I didn’t have a camera of my own, so I started trying to make friends with anyone I came across who had a camera. I would use some peoples’ cameras and ask them to send the pictures to me.

What makes Lagos such a fascinating city for telling visual stories?
Lagos cannot be described, it can only be experienced. I’ve just been fascinated by the energy of the city, the vibrancy, the people… you just have to feel it, you have to engage with people. That’s what I love about the city… People wanna talk and people are curious, people dress very colourful, there’s a lot of fashion. The music… the nightlife… the noise pollution… it’s beautiful chaos. My photographs don’t even do enough justice to the vibrancy and the energy of this city.

What are the Lagos stories that need to be told?
Lagos is fast changing, Lagos is moving really fast. As a photographer I struggle to catch up with what is happening. There is a need for storytellers to dig deeper and explore more. It’s also not an easy city to navigate. The city is always churning out stories.

How has photography changed your life?
Every day I wake up and sometimes I feel like I’m dreaming. It’s unbelievable… the opportunities photography has given me. Maybe we need to make more effort to document and tell these kind of stories, from a different perspective, or peoples’ perspectives.