The United Nations Workplace on Medication and Crime, UNODC, will have interaction Nigerian photographers to discover methods to fight crime with images at the forthcoming Abuja Worldwide Photo Festival.
The photograph pageant, happening from October 29 to 31, 2025, at the Exhibition Pavilion of the Abuja Worldwide Convention Centre, brings collectively photographers, visible storytellers and different professionals from all over the world to discover how imagery can promote social reform and drive handle challenges.
In exploring how to harness images in combating crime, consultants, throughout panel discussions at the pageant, will look at methods to counter the deployment of Synthetic Intelligence generated images in prison actions, particularly cybercrime and misinformation.
Talking at a press convention on Friday forward of the occasion, the pageant’s founder, Osaze Efe, disclosed that 1,500 photographers are anticipated at the 2025 version of the Abuja Photo Festival.
Efe, who highlighted the function of the pageant in youth empowerment, famous that by the platform, plenty of Nigerian youths have been taken off the streets, thereby escaping doable involvement in prison actions.
He added that the pageant has additionally supplied a platform for Nigerian photographers to discover alternatives within the images business, which has an estimated worth of N250 billion.
In accordance to him, through the years, the pageant has mentored greater than 500 younger photographers, a lot of whom at the moment are training professionals utilizing their artwork to inform tales that problem injustice and promote neighborhood consciousness.
“These photographers have turned their ardour into sustainable careers. They’re unlocking alternatives in an business valued at over N250 billion and proving that creativity might be each a device for advocacy and financial empowerment.
“By way of images, we’re shaping conversations round id, atmosphere, migration and human connection. Past creativity, we’re equipping younger folks with abilities that allow them to earn a residing and use their cameras as devices of change.
“Now in its ninth yr, the Abuja Worldwide Photo Festival has grown into considered one of Africa’s most important platforms for visible tradition,” Efe mentioned.
The theme for the 2025 Abuja Worldwide Photo Festival is ‘A World Related’. Efe famous that the theme underscores the assumption that visible storytelling can transcend language and geography, linking folks by shared feelings and experiences.
“In a world outlined by each digital connection and social fragmentation, images stays a device of reality, empathy, and hope.
“By way of this pageant, we’re reaffirming our collective perception that artwork can change views, affect coverage, and construct a extra linked society,” he burdened.
Additionally talking at the press convention, the consultant of the UNODC, Cheikh Toure, defined why the UN company determined to take part within the occasion.
In accordance to Toure, UNODC is dedicated to utilizing inventive platforms to handle social challenges.
“Festivals like this will type the idea to fight crime, have interaction the youth, and supply them with platforms to earn a residing. The world is shifting, and the function of images is important as images converse volumes.
“That’s the reason the United Nations Workplace on Medication and Crime is proud to be a part of this exhibition — to use imagery as a platform to curb crime, drug abuse, and promote constructive youth engagement,” Toure mentioned.
He additional famous that the collaboration displays UNODC’s broader mission to combine cultural initiatives into social improvement and crime prevention methods.
The pageant, backed by establishments together with, UNODC, UNESCO, EINAO Options, the Embassy of Sweden, the United Nations Workplace and the Workplace of the Particular Assistant to the President on Arts, Tradition, and the Inventive Economic system, will function panel discussions on matters equivalent to Ladies Evolving By way of the Lens, Faces Past Date – Utilizing Imagery to Advocate for Youngsters Who Are Victims of Crimes and Drug Abuse, Synthetic Intelligence, Digital Actuality and the Way forward for Visible Narratives, and The Function of Photojournalism in Combating Misinformation.
