It is his spontaneous chuckle which always graduated into a warm smile I always remember of Matthew Faji. That I did not know that Matthew Faji had died and been buried is a sad indictment of how well the present generation of editors of national newspapers know those particularly photographers who have contributed so much to build and strengthen what is now called the new journalism in Nigeria. I agree with one of his many genuine admirers, Nkanu Egbe, that “Matthew Faji's death should have been front-page news. He was a national treasure in print journalism!”
It was a call to another great friend, 'younger brother and journalistic supporter' of Faji, Wole Olaoye, who was recuperating from an accident, that informed me that Faji had been buried. And it was indeed sad that Olaoye who had made me know Faji and his body of work much better broke the terrible news.
I knew Matthew Faji was ill and down. I had spoken with him; he sounded low in spirit, his voice was weak and, I had promised to call him again. I had lost touch with him and had last visited him at Oregun at his Newswatch office some years back. 2010 being a very special year for Nigeria, I had been approached by a Frenchman and Swiss lady who were respectively collecting photographic images for politics and fashion projects on Nigeria at 50. I automatically recommended Matthew Faji as one of the best sources for such archival photographic images on Nigeria. With the help of Olaoye and Dan Agbese in particular I was able to get the phone number of Faji's son who in turn put me in touch with his father, Matthew.
In 1995 when Jide Adeniyi-Jones, Don Barber and myself were considering 'veteran' photographers of professional repute to invite to become protem President of the Photographers' Association of Nigeria-PAN; an umbrella body for photographers from all genres; we decided to approach Faji, Peter Obe and Okhai Ojeikere. Faji was friendly in turning down our offer but that did not diminish the respect we had for his huge body of work and immense contributions towards strengthening the standard and quality of photographic work in print journalism in Nigeria.
Matthew Faji was a master photographer. His forte was documentary and news photography and his favoured medium was medium format black & white celluloid film working mostly with a twin-reflex camera. I personally considered him then, and now, as the father of magazine photography in Nigeria. With the older Peter Obe as the doyen of newspaper photography in Nigeria; the duo of Obe and Faji can be classified as the fathers of print journalism photography in Nigeria. They definitely were not the first but were unquestionably both amongst the very best and had long and very impressive careers in terms of magnificent and memorable visual outputs.
In the nineties Faji was making a sort of comeback in that he was encouraged to dig into his bank of characteristic strong and gripping images and offer them for publication in the Plume; the in-flight magazine of ADC Airlines. He had earlier made his name and earned professional respect and accolade as a photographer with the Nigerian franchise of the original South African magazine Drum!
I called Olu Obafemi, who had joined the Drum group as an Assistant Editor of Trust back in 1975 and, he was unaware that Faji had died and of course devastated by the sad news. He recalled that Faji was the Chief Cameraman of the Drum group when he joined and, to him, “Matthew Faji was photography!”
“Each time Faji went out on assignment,” Olu Obafemi continued, “he came back with so many excellent photographs that all the editors would be full of admiration and they had difficulty choosing what photographs to use. His photographs were always full of surprise!”
What were some of his favourite Faji photographs I asked Obafemi?
“One of the greatest was at Ikenne during an interview with Awolowo. Awolowo was talking and he and the editor had forgotten that Faji was around. Then suddenly Awolowo threw a long-range punch demonstrating the kind of punch he was going to give his political opponent and Faji captured the famous Awo punch. This was in 1976-77. The other was during FESTAC '77. A group of dancers from Southern Africa were performing on stage and suddenly they made a move and Faji captured a stunning photograph showing a row of their bare buttocks. My third favourite was a photograph he took when we were interviewing Major Ademoyega of the first-coup fame. Faji caught the moment when Ademoyega suddenly pointed at something.”
What made Faji such a great photographer?
“Faji captured events in details that are frightening,” Obafemi explained. “He was never in a hurry and he never removed his eye from the lens throughout an interview however long, and he put the interviewee at rest. Yet, he was ready when the action happened. He had great action photographs of Ahmadu Bello, Zik and Awo. Like the photograph of the bare-bottomed women dancers; there were 16 other photographers there but only Faji got that critical shot!”
How does Obafemi rank Faji?
“In photography I place Faji on a pedestal a little higher than Obe. Obe had success. Faji was exceptional. He was full of surprises we all could not expect and he had the knack for taking that moment's action that always told the story.” I always believed that in many ways Matthew Faji was a bit too quiet and self-effacing. He underplayed his great talent and the value of his masterpieces. Olu Obafemi in turn believes that Faji “was shy.”
Way back in 1977 Faji had shown Obafemi over 2,000 of his photographs and they had decided to do a book from them, but they got no sponsors. They were to revisit the project many times decades later and again could not source sponsors. Matthew Faji had gone on to work with the weekly news magazine Newswatch where he contributed immensely with his photographic images and was a source of inspiration and knowledge for the younger photographers there. He may have been withdrawn in life but his creative and powerful images will forever testify that Matthew Faji was indeed a master and one of Nigeria's greatest photographers; definitely top ten!
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