A new lens on grief: Bade Fuwa is constructing soft and surreal scenes to process his past

Like many great image makers, Bade Fuwa has found a space in photography to explore his inner world, speaking through surreal and tender scenes that touch on themes of loss, bereavement and belonging. Following the passing of his late mother in 2019, the photographer has seen a shift in his visual output and a renewed relationship to the discipline: “I believe for that period I had to force myself to stop feeling emotions so as not to grieve to death from the sadness. It was easy for me to express it all with photography, and I think that in that process my works became much bolder as I took photography as a means to live and express what I felt.”

Completely self-taught, the Lagos-based creative only really started to explore photography in 2023 and much of his work to date has been an experiment in self-expression. Turning to image-making from a background of study at fashion school, many of his portraits are an opportunity to carefully art direct and style scenes to convey complex emotions – “truly the most important thing when trying to capture an image”, he says. “I try not to overthink my process or the idea as I believe once you think about it you ruin it.”

Often Bade sticks to shooting in black-and-white, following in the footsteps of some of his largest photographic inspirations: Peter Lingerberg, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon. Rather than finding visual influence in contemporary photography, he has been drawn to those photographers “who lived, created art and truly existed – I study them and their works, not for their style but their story”, he says. Another important vehicle for visual inspiration in the artist’s works is nature: seascapes populate numerous frames and flowers appear to grow out of his subjects in others. “I think currently I'm in love with shooting nature; nature is beautiful and never judges,” he ends. “I feel there is a connection there. I don't know what it is I’m searching for but I will keep shooting with nature.”