Contribution: NO FACE – A photo series by Elfreda Dali and Nwaka Okparaeke

A photo story: Spies on a mission to uncover the truth behind the conspiracy. 

In a world full of people hiding behind masks some are able to hide things that most people wouldn’t suspect. Being aware that life changing secrets exist, some spies begin to search for the truth, collect evidence and understanding. Once they have the answers, will they choose to join the conspiracy or will they choose to expose the truth?

Inspiration:

Nwaka and Elfreda used their visual interpretation of spies and conspiracies to explore how this concept helps us question life and culture in the current day. 

e.g What happens when you can’t see yourself from another perspective? Who do you become? Do you even know? Do you even care? Honest self reflection. Correct judgment. Who can know?

People have always been full of questions, but now we are in a world that is changing faster than usual, leaving us in a society full of confusion. With search engines and social media we are open to all sorts of information that leads us to wonder who is right and who is wrong? What is real and what is fake? How much of something can we trust/believe? Also, how can we use the ability to manipulate and hide behind made up identities ourselves? Do we want to avoid it or join in?

Nwaka: “I love the idea of spies. From the glamour to the thrilling and unique lifestyle we watch them live in the movies. Also, their ability to cleverly transform into different identities, make huge or small impacts and then disappear is very cool to me. Conspiracies fascinate me as I consider the amount of power some people have managed to gain and the level of manipulation that is possible in society. Both of these concepts are full of secrecy which makes it that more tempting to understand what exactly is going on behind closed doors.”

Elfreda: “It’s about the duplicity. Taking on different roles and disposing of them; and the course of events that follow afterwards. With the conspiracy it’s about natural human behaviour as opposed to controlled or manipulated patterns of behaviour. The various identities of the spies are the tools used to create the web or rules and regulations that construct these realities. I am inspired by what that looks like visually which I think the movies do a great job of.”

CREDITS:

Fashion designer & Stylist  
Elfreda Dali @elfredadali

Photographer
Nwaka Okparaeke @by_nwaka

Assisted by
Mariam Sanusi @riam_does

Models
Aziz @jasonaziz_official
Jessica Ajose @jess.ajose 
Mikun @olamikunadekoya