Photographs from South Africa and Nigeria shine light on the rapid growth of megacities

In the heart of the Aguda neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, a single electrical pole bears a cacophony of wires, perched at the top like a frantic bird's nest. Although the neighborhood may have changed, and this pole might not be there, photographer Akinbode Akinbiyi preserved this moment in time.

"[The pole] is on the edge of falling apart, and yet it's like so much about resilience and capability and communication and connection, and it has all of these things in such a simple image, in some ways," said curator Carol Magee, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who specializes in African contemporary art. "It's just wires but it says all of those things."

Akinbiyi's photograph is part of "Urban Cadence," a traveling exhibition of photography and video now at the Weisman Art Museum that reflects the rapid growth and landscapes of megacities Lagos and Johannesburg, South Africa. The show is from Gund Gallery at Kenyon College in Ohio, and was originally scheduled to open at the Weisman in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed it.

The exhibition hosts more than 60 photos and videos by nine African artists, each offering a different perspective into Lagos and Johannesburg. Since many of the photos were shot at least 10 years ago, in the 2000s and early-to-mid 2010s, these pictures also serve as an archive of sorts.

Nigerian photographer Akintunde Akinleye's powerful photo "Each Passing Day," 2006, captures a man walking across a bridge. Behind him, loads of people are squeezing through a road packed with buses and cars in a densely populated urban area of Lagos.

"When you get to that place right now, the bridge has been redesigned, it's expanded, the place has completely changed," Akinleye said. "Of course, you still have a lot of people around that place, but the bridge, the road, everything in that place has been redesigned. But how do we tell the history of that place? Of the landscape?"

In Uche Okpa-Iroha's "Molue Bus" series, he captures closeups of Lagos' modes of transportation from the Bolade bus stop, near Oshodi, where men pack into yellow buses. Sometimes people stare back at the camera, but other times they're unaware of the picture being taken.

In Sabelo Mlangeni's black-and-white pictures of Johannesburg, he often captures scenes of the city in transition. In "Casa di Arbiter on Rissik Street (Big City series)," 2009, we see a street being repaved and blocked from traffic.

South African photographer Jodi Bieber shoots vivid color photos, often capturing the vibrancy of life in Soweto. Her vibrant photo "Giramundo Flame Grilled Chicken, Diepkloof," 2010, shows a chicken joint painted yellow, its sign in simmering red, and a pink car parked in front.

Similarly in her photo "Orlando West Swimming Pool, Orlando West," 2009, children fill the blue pools and a woman in a pink bathing suit gazes down, as if she is posing. Once an area known for clashes between anti-apartheid protesters and the government, Orlando is now a symbol of "new South Africa."

Magee's impetus for this exhibition about street photography came out of her research into photography from Africa.

"When I first began studying photography that was coming out of Africa, there was a lot of studio portraiture," she said. "And I kept thinking there has to be some other type of photography. … I was interested in place and how people represent their connection to place, so I became interested in looking for photographers who were [doing that]. The most visually engaging were photographers from Lagos."

Indeed, one of the most striking photos in the show is Akinleye's "Quiet Lagos," where a completely empty street is framed with a sign above promoting "Fashola is Working, Lagos is Working." (Fashola refers to Babatunde Fashola, who was the former governor of Lagos State.) The picture was shot in 2011, during a time when, once a month for three hours, the bustling city shut down for a mandatory street cleaning, but photojournalists were allowed on the streets.

"The pictures I am going to take today, in 20 to 25 years' time, are going to be more valuable to me because what they do is they keep my memory — they allow me to remember," Akinleye said. "Because once that time has past, memory is always very short."

'Urban Cadence'

Where: Weisman Art Museum, 333 East River Road, Mpls.

Hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wed., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thu. & Fri., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. & Sun. Ends Dec. 31.

Info: Free, wam.umn.edu or 612-625-9494.