Life Lessons from Photography Anonymous

My brother stands frozen in time, trapped in eternal wonderment as the gray horse sculpture rears above his head. An open-air church service is being held behind him, underneath the shade of another great, restless beast. A preacher dressed in a traditional woven sokoto stares in my direction, transfixed by the jarring shutter noise of my camera. Or perhaps displeased with my trespass onto the historical landmark that is the Tafawa Balewa Stadium? The blurred, nuanced photograph is hardly conclusive.

Photography is a hobby that enables me to gain perspective and re-establish personal balance. Taking pictures of monumental structures such as the Tafawa Balewa Stadium (TBS) has opened my eyes to the socio-economic impacts of the built environment. Yet I have also gained appreciation for a wide spectrum of human experiences through the art of photography itself. My greatest motivations to pursue a career in Civil Engineering were realised underneath the galvanized zinc roofs of Lagos market stalls, as well as the littered shores of an emerging 'Atlantic Ocean settlement'. Therefore, I intend to spend my first year at Florida State University using my natural observations and photography to gain deeper insight into emerging spatial...