Yagazie Emezi is a Nigerian artist and self-taught photojournalist focused on stories surrounding African women and their health, sexuality, education and human rights. Having worked extensively across Africa, Yagazie also covers stories on identity and culture, social justice, climate change and migration. Yagazie is a recipient of the 2018 inaugural Creative Bursary Award from Getty Images. In 2019, she became the first black African woman to photograph for National Geographic Magazine and is a National Geographic Explorer Grantee. She’s worked with Al-Jazeera, New York Times, Vogue, Newsweek, TIME, Washington Post, National Geographic, New York Times Magazine and several not-for-profit organizations. Yagazi has also been featured by British Journal of Photography, Huffington Post, Vogue, CNN and The Washington Post.

In this episode Yagazie takes us back to being a storyteller as an imaginative child in a small town and how returning to Nigeria after studying in the U.S. impacted her ability to see and photograph with new eyes. Her personal and professional growth took off when she moved to Liberia to work as a photographer for a non-profit and began doing personal projects. Whether in Yagazie’s work or her life, we explore topics of confidence, dignity, beauty, self-consciousness, age and humanity.  

This is We Are Photographers with Yagazie Emezi and this is her story.

Connect with Yagazie Emezi: yagazieemezi.com | Instagram | Facebook

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