"I Couldn't Paddle the Sewing Machine": How Taiwo Aina-Adeokun Found Her Way to Documentary Photography
- No! Wahala Magazine
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Most photographers can trace their entry into the craft to a single moment: a borrowed camera, a chance encounter, a photograph that stopped them in their tracks. For Taiwo Aina-Adeokun, it was a sewing machine she couldn't operate.
"I was in the tailoring class with my twin sisters and couldn't paddle the sewing machine after a week," she recalls with a laugh. "As somebody who is very competitive, I was like, is it worth me spending time here without gaining anything, so I ran to photography class instead."
That accidental pivot, made during a vocational training programme in school, set Taiwo on a path that has taken her across Nigeria and into international exhibitions, publications, and now, an upcoming workshop where she will be sharing how she responds to briefs and works on assignments.
From Point-and-Shoot to Personal Projects
Taiwo's early photography education was thorough in its foundations: film development, darkroom basics, and point-and-shoot cameras. She finished as the best student in her photography class and received a cash prize for her efforts. A neighbour gifted her a point-and-shoot that barely worked, but she appreciated the gesture. It was enough to keep the flame lit.
At university, where she studied Agricultural Economics, she felt restless. She borrowed phones to take pictures. She saved up and received a cash gift for a digital camera. In 2019, she interned at a photo studio to understand lighting and the business of photography, but found herself drawn outward: to the streets, to cultural festivals and to documentary work.
"I found myself leaving the studio to take pictures on the streets," she says. "I thought, maybe I should just focus on this thing for a while and see how it works."
A No! Wahala Magazine workshop during that period helped crystallise something. "It opened my eyes to the possibility of telling a story and having a personal project." From there, her work of finding a specific form and audience began.
She documented cultural festivals across Nigeria, posting selectively to Instagram. One post caught the attention of a client on LinkedIn, and she ended up travelling to Accra, Ghana. She then travelled across northern Nigeria and produced work that was printed on office walls. A residency soon followed, along with exhibitions, an article in The Guardian and a portfolio review at the New York Times.
"I've just been going up, up, up," she says.
The Work: Stories Rooted in Curiosity
Taiwo's practice is driven by her personal connection to certain subjects and the community. Her work has evolved from documenting the immediate world around her to a more focused inquiry into stories about women, health, and the social and human environment. Climate change is a recurring concern for her.
Her most celebrated ongoing project, Game of Confidence, documents female boxers in Nigeria, women competing in such sports (and documentary photography) is often rare to see as such activities are male-dominated.
"The female boxers are in a male-dominated sports industry, but I'm in a male-dominated photo industry," she says. "Their drive is also similar to mine. They are always pushing, trying to be the best in what they do, trying to get opportunities for themselves. And that is synonymous to me, too."
The intimacy of the work is visible in the images. Taiwo spent months with individual collaborators, building the kind of trust that allows a photographer to become a fly on the wall. "The kind of intimacy I got telling the story was not what I get in telling other people's stories that I probably have just a day or two," she reflects. "We got to be friends, and the photos are just different."
The project's future is clear in her mind: a book. "I'd like to have a book so that people can collect it." She also plans to continue to add to it, with plans to hold community exhibitions for the boxers themselves.
Becoming a Thespian
Another project that draws immediate attention is Becoming a Thespian, a series documenting student initiations into theatre arts at Nigerian universities. It began with her younger sister, who told her she would need to take out her hair and undergo weeks of intensive training as part of the theatre arts initiation process.
"I'm like, why? Why are you taking out your hair?" Taiwo recalls. "Then I got there, and I was blown away."
What she found was a rite of passage: three weeks of rigorous training in stage plays, dance, and performance, culminating in an evening showcase. If a student cannot endure the training, they are not considered a proper thespian. Taiwo visited multiple universities to understand how the practice differed and what held consistent, spending a week at the University of Ibadan and documenting at other institutions.
"The more time I spent in different schools, and the more access I got, the better the photos were," she says.
The project has been paused for three years due to other commitments, but she is planning a return to northern and eastern Nigerian schools this time, to complete a fuller national picture.
The photographs themselves carry a spiritual weight that surprises her. "Before I started that project, I didn't like theatre," she admits. "But now I really, really love it. The vibe is just there. Listening to the song echoing and everything, it was just beautiful. My mind was blown away."
On Personal Work and Its Costs
How does she fund it all? Many of Taiwo's projects have been self-financed, kept manageable by it’s proximity to her everyday life. "Most of them were stories that were around me," she explains.
But she has also come to believe that personal work is worth investing in, even when the returns are indirect. "Personal projects are really what identify us as artists. Most of the commissioned work, even if we have copyright to it, it’s not our own expression or our own ideas."
One of her most resonant ongoing projects involves her grandmother: a long-form documentary she began without any plan. "I didn't plan it. I was just filming in our own element." When her grandmother had a partial stroke, Taiwo showed her uncle the footage. He was in tears.
"I know that she has more years left," she says. "But I'll follow through with that project till she's late, and maybe do, like, a 2-minute clip to just show the end story. In 10 years, if I watch that film, I'm going to feel different."
Building the Next Generation
Taiwo is not only making work. She is building infrastructure for others to make it too. Last year, she and her husband launched an organisation called Greenleaf Stories in Nigeria, focused on documentary production and education.
She wants to increase the number of female documentary storytellers in Nigeria.
"There's still a wide gap between wedding, portrait, and documentary," she says. "I try to educate the average Nigerian about what documentary storytelling is."
On the barriers women face, the industry is male-dominated at every level, and documentary photography is particularly demanding: it requires travel, sustained commitment, and physical endurance. Family expectations and the logistics of marriage are real factors for many women. But she is also clear that these are challenges to be worked through, not walls.
"When I wanted to get married, I thought about it. Okay, I got married to a documentary photographer, so I'm going to figure this thing out, because I always want to work."
What She Would Tell Photographers Starting Out
When asked what mindset photographers need to work with editorial outlets and NGOs, Taiwo keeps it practical. "Over-deliver at your best capacity," she says. "If you're doing a story, do a full story: portrait, action, environmental, because that might come in handy. The client might not see what you are seeing in the field."
The second piece of advice is about visibility. "Put your work out there. Take people through the process of your work. That will make you stay at the top of people's minds." She references relationships and networks as the real gatekeepers of opportunity. "People have to know you so they can recommend you."
Join Taiwo at the No! Wahala Workshop
Taiwo Aina-Adeokun will be joining us as a guest speaker at the upcoming Workshop, Assignments and Briefs: Working Professionally in Editorial and NGO Photography, where she will be drawing on her career to guide photographers through the realities of working with editorial and non-profit clients while building a personal practice.
Her goal for participants is simple: "They will become confident to take on assignments. When they finish, they will not be scared."
If you are a photographer working to develop your editorial practice, or simply curious about what it takes to tell stories that matter, this is a conversation you do not want to miss.
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