Reframing Perfection

Where to even start? I should start by introducing myself. I'm Ayo, a British-born Nigerian, and I take photos.

I've been shooting photography since 2011 when my younger sister Tani did photography as an A-Level, and I refused for her to be more creative than me. So I hunted down my late Dad’s old DSLR and decided to teach myself how to use it. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it too—good old sibling rivalry.

So I started shooting. Anything and everything. At first I was bad, really bad. I didn’t even start shooting in RAW until 2016. So yeah. Bad.

As time went on and as I learned more about photography, in crept in that incessant yet addictive desire to find the ‘perfect shot’. That’s the shot where the composition is perfect, the lighting is golden, the story is clear, and the camera is set up correctly to capture it all.

And the relentless desire to find perfection has served me well, I’ve improved over the years. But, and theres always a but, more often than not I find myself stifled by that desire for perfection. I find myself discarding photos because the standards that I set for myself have gotten to a place that is no longer sustainable.

And that brings us to today.

To reframe my mind and pull it away from relentlessly seeking perfection, I thought I’d try something. I went through all my photographs since I started taking photos in 2011, with the sole focus of finding photos that are beautiful because of their imperfections. And my messups.

Upon reflection, I found so many that were beautiful in their own right.

Sometimes because the composition is off, it's somehow a more striking photo.

Sometimes because the lighting is not favourable, that brings a darkness, or moodiness that I didn’t intend on.

And there were so many times where I messed up and didn’t set my camera up with the correct settings, [don’t forget that part] and the photos came out cooler than I could have ever intended.

So I would love to present a selection of these photographs that I initially thought were lesser than, in a bid to remind myself and others that sometimes the most beauty comes not when we intend it, but when we mess up what we were trying to do in the first place.

Use the links below to view the names and descriptions of as many photos I could think of writing them for. I hope you enjoy experiencing this exhibition as much as I have loved creating it.

Love.

Ayo