Hakeem Salaam

One of the most imaginative minds working the camera in Nigeria today, Hakeem Salaam began making images in his mind as a child, and started capturing them in 1989 when he bought his first camera, a Pentax point-and-shoot Obscura. The fascination with still images grew, but he remained in his dark room making private photographs until 2001, when he began shooting real people with a Pentax SLR.
Hakeem, who studied Estate Management at the University of Lagos and did an executive programme at the Lagos Business School, worked in estate firms and the Lagos State Government until March 2010 when he voluntarily retired to follow his heart. A widely published photographer, he is interested in documentary, travel and landscape, portrait and fashion photography, and is the recipient of the Fashion photographer of The Year Award. His work has been exhibited both locally and internationally. His most recent was at 2019 Ake Festival held at the Mike Adenuga Center, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Hakeem is widely travelled and has been involved in various photography projects chief of which are: coffee-table book on Abuja, vitiligo portraits, beautiful Nigeria(ongoing), foreigners on Long Street, Cape Town, South Africa.

University of Lagos,
Estate Management

Ili African Fabrics
Ekomo, rhythms of Africa