In Borderline, a fence divides poverty and prosperity, says Tigidam

Perez Tiigidam heard about Bonny but never visited there. He became curious and went there to see how it looks and was a bit disappointed when he saw how people were living. This is why he did the Borderline Study 1 and 2 in 20102.

In his words: “It was poverty juxtaposed with wealth. What divides the poverty and prosperity is a fence. The borderline is more or less, a picture that showed that those on the wealth cannot cross over to the poverty stricken area and vice versa. I spent some days in the poor community to feel how life looks like to them, but found out that they are living happily. My heart broke when I was leaving there. I wished I had the kind of money that can raise their standard of living. Some of them don’t have the opportunity of playing in gardens or with beautiful toys or some of the technologies children in the city enjoy.

“In this community, wild animals including hippopotamus lived here but as a result of pollution from these oil companies, all of them died.  The work is very subjective. It leaves the viewer with questions to ask: “Are we only exploiting our environment and enriching one side?” It calls for environmental consciousness,” said Tigidam.

A visual artist and writer, Tobenna Okwuosa, described Perez’s works as images that are layered with myth and reality, all of which are subsumed in a surrealistic ambience and quietude. According to him, “Tigidam’s borderline Study 1 and 2 (2012) engage the complex existential paradox of Niger Delta as a space where stark poverty faces stupendous wealth. This condition is the result of the expropriation of the wealth of Niger Delta people by others with total neglect and abandonment.”

Naturally, people get scared when they hear about mamiwater, that is actually what informed Perez Tigidam’s decision to document pictures about the river goddess. “In advertising, one can take advantage of people’s emotion and fear to market a product. I am a bit of a conceptual person. Sometimes, some ideas flash on my mind, so I put it on paper or use my camera to bring out some of the abstract things I am thinking about. When we came up with issues about Niger Delta, I remembered there are a lot of things we can focus on that appeal to the minds of people. So I remembered mamiwater. It goes beyond the name.

When he asked whether mamiwater lives in the river in Niger Delta, he said:”Niger Delta is situated around riverine areas, so one would be prone to think that mamiwater is there. Nobody has seen mamiwater in Niger Delta, it is a myth that we are made to believe. There is a community where they celebrate mamiwater.   Mami is from the word ‘woman’ then water, so I did it to look beyond mamiwater but for it to represent the beauty of Niger Delta women. So what occupied my mind at that time was how I could define the beauty of average riverine woman.

“Sometimes, people refer to beautiful girls as mamiwaters. So I looked beyond some of those traditional beliefs. I defined the beauty of women and the scenery through the way I shot the photographs.  It was a stressful work in terms of costumes, and so on. I hired the model, bought a paddle and hired the canoe. I first of all drew it on a paper before shooting the pictures with my cameras. At the end of the day, it was fun and everything appeared beautiful,” he said.

Tigidam is from Rivers State. He is into brand marketing and communication. He has been doing documentary photography for about five years. His first work was done in 2008 at a village where the Nigerian civil war began. That is, a boundary between Cross River and the North.” From there, I discovered that I could use my camera to record developmental works.  I do it as a hobby when I am not busy with work. His work was recently selected in the Alliance Francais sponsored Life in my City photo contest. 

The graduate of University of Port Harcourt also studied photography under Kelechi Amadi Obi. He also got trained at the Orange Academy School of Brand Innovation, where he emerged the best student for the use of logic in branding.  He did a creative enterprise development course organised by the British Council and Pan African University. Tigidam is a trained film editor from the New York Film Academy and a passionate tourism promoter. He is an associate member of the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and convener of Open City Africa Innovation conferences.