© Nybe Ponzio
Started as a vehicle for his own work, Arinzechukwu Patrick’s Random Photo Journal has grown into a lively magazine on Africa and beyond
Random Photo Journal is a self-styled ‘Study of the Social Ecology of Neighborhoods, Daily Lives & Living Conditions’. Edited by Nigeria-based photographer Arinzechukwu Patrick, it offers insights into massively under-represented stories. Founded in 2017, and published intermittently ever since, supplemented by a busy Instagram feed, it showcases the everyday and the super spectacular in Africa – and, increasingly, beyond. Including street photography, reportage, club images and fashion, Arinzechukwu freely moves between documentary, snapshot and staged images, creating a fresh mix of stories accompanied by short texts or interviews.
The two covers of Issue 3 show three stylish young men in a street in Lagos, or an equally stylish guy under a tree, both shot by Patrick; inside are stories on the Yoruban Osun-Osogbu festival near Lagos shot by Adetolani Davies; on Malian hairstyles and their significance in the first days of Shawwal by Nybé Ponzio; on ‘Somalia Like Never Before!’ by Suaad Mohiadin, among many more. Issue 4 came with four covers and went more international; one cover shows three glamorous women out clubbing in Lagos shot by Patrick; another a mother and child in New Zealand made by Edith Amituanai, part of the Pacific Islands diaspora. Inside includes a story on skateboarding in Ivory Coast by Yassine Sellame, and a celebration of London’s Notting Hill Carnival by Muna Adan.
“There’s this huge Black community, and a lot of people follow us due to that fact. Because they’re like, ‘OK! Everything Blackness, we can get from this page”
“Initially I was doing mostly West Africa,” says Patrick via video call. “Then later I was like, ‘Damn! Uganda looks really nice – and Zambia and Namibia also’. So I said, ‘OK, now we include East, West, North Africa, actually everybody in Africa definitely deserves to be spoken about’. And later I’d see some events and I’d think, ‘Yo, what the hell is this? It’s European!’. So I decided, let’s create an international issue, where we can just speak to anybody.”
Each issue also includes stories on fashion brands, often international and interesting in their own right. Issue 4 includes a shoot for J-Sabelo, for example, a Zimbabwean- German label. “The brand was honestly born out of a personal necessity to adorn my culture in spaces, far from home, where I felt a crisis of identity, a pure longing for home,” reads a quote from the founder, Aristide Loua. “To me, clothing does reflect one’s particular background, set of emotions, idea of the world, or even reinvention of such. And ever since coming back home, in late December 2015, after a decade living abroad, I have been on constant research, a discovery of excellence in the craftsmanship our local artisans are able to put forth.”
Random Photo Journal’s team is international in scope too, with Patrick based in Nigeria and creative director Justyna Obasi based in Nigeria and Germany; they also take frequent trips to Cape Town. Patrick grew up in Lagos, before moving to Ghana at 13; he studied business administration in Accra, returning to Lagos when he was 26. By then he was a keen photographer, and after a road trip around Nigeria, taking images on the way, launched Random Photo Journal as a vehicle for his own work.
Then Covid hit, and other people’s photography became a way to see and hear about the world. “I couldn’t travel, I couldn’t photograph any place anymore,” says Patrick. “So I was forced to rely on other people in the places I would love to be at. I just resorted to, ‘OK, so I can’t come to Tanzania right now, but please can I talk to you about Tanzania, and please, can I see some of your images so I can have an idea of what it’s like?”
After lockdown he intended to go back to showing his own work but, having interviewed so many interesting people, and gathered so many stories, found Random Photo Journal had taken on a life of its own. It has been a learning curve, he concedes – he has made issues that lacked barcodes, or information on the spine (making them hard to distribute). But he is also part of a thriving scene and, with fairs such as Lagos Art Book springing up and over 31,000 Instagram followers, the magazine now usually sells out.
“There’s this huge Black community, right?” says Patrick. “And a lot of people follow due to that fact. Because they’re like, ‘OK! Everything Blackness, we can get from this page’.”
