#GloryGang: Alexis Edevbie captures Nigeria’s youth culture in 35 mm
The Glory Girl Gang is our ever-expanding community of female & non-binary talent across Africa. They are storytelling creatives that include photographers, designers, producers, directors, illustrators, artists, editors, and everything else. From media and advertising to fashion and beauty, across freelancing & emerging businesses to strong-standing brands. Discover them here.
My name is Alexis Edevbie, I’m a 23-year-old MSc Marketing student currently studying at LSE. I’ve been in love with music, art, and fashion for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, I was instantly drawn to anything that required creativity. I’d also noticed that whenever I heard a song, I would instantly envision the accompanying visuals.
That’s when my friend Zoë and I started writing treatments for music videos for fun. There was also a point in time where I started a YouTube channel and then moved on to trying to learn how to DJ. I’d say I definitely “had my hands in too many pots” as I wanted to do absolutely everything! That’s when I knew I had to hone in on a single creative outlet and bring the visuals in my head to life.
What is LABTWOTHREEFOUR all about?
LABTWOTHREEFOUR is a platform I created to share my art. I became interested in photography at a really young age and initially began shooting digitally. 2018 was the year I got my hands on my first film camera — that’s honestly when everything changed for me. It’s something I’ve invested time into and have so much fun doing.
For me, shooting on film is raw and evokes a sense of nostalgia. All my baby pictures were shot on film so I’ve always had these types of images around me. In a world that’s so fast-paced, film photography forces you to slow down and envision your shot before you take it.
It’s not like shooting on a digital camera where you can delete your pictures if you’re not happy with what you see. You don’t know how your pictures will come out until you get your film developed and that adds to the excitement.
I take these pictures because I see it as creating content that I haven’t seen before. I grew up on Tumblr too, so that had a major influence on my shooting style and the general layout of my profile. Each person had a blog that was curated to your own liking. I feel like Instagram allows you to do the same type of thing.
How old were you when you became interested in photography?
I was around 12 years old. I remember the first camera I ever owned — it was a tiny pink Sony Cyber-Shot digital camera and it was the same shade as my hot pink Motorola Razr flip phone! Looking back, it wasn’t the best camera ever but I made the most of it.
What do you aim to capture with your work?
For me, it’s all about youth culture… especially Nigerian youth culture. I feel like this is our time and I want to document as much as I possibly can! When I started taking film photography seriously, I’d take pictures of my friends on a night out — when we are all in our element — having fun and living our lives.
I’ve now started visualising and conceptualising my shoots. I want to create images people haven’t seen before and show them my take on film photography as a young Nigerian woman. I intend to capture aspects of Nigerian culture as a whole.
Who do you look to for inspiration?
As cheesy as this may sound, my friends inspire me. I’m surrounded by creative and innovative people from varying fields — it’s incredible. When it comes to film, I’d say photographers like Vicky Grout, Renell Medrano, and Amber Asaly constantly force me to think about how I can make my work stand out. Seeing the work they’ve done makes me want to go harder and develop my craft further.
What is your creative process?
It varies! I can be listening to music, become inspired by hooks or melodies and start jotting down ideas. Other times I may be watching a movie and something I see gets me thinking about a concept I could explore.
I get inspired by simply looking out my window, taking a walk outside, or even having conversations with my friends. I feel like inspiration is everywhere, you just need to pay attention and you’ll find it! I try my best to stay off IG unless I want to post because it’s so easy to be so influenced by other people’s work that you end up re-creating that.
In the next few years, where do you see yourself going with LABTWOTHREEFOUR?
In the next few years, I definitely see LABTWOTHREEFOUR being more than a platform that showcases my film photography. I study marketing and have worked in PR so I’ve always envisioned LABTWOTHREEFOUR evolving into an all-female creative agency, based in Lagos!”
I want to establish it as a brand now so I won’t have to start from scratch in the future! I’ve always known that I wanted LABTWOTHREEFOUR to be associated with more than just photography and become an agency that offers services ranging from videography to brand development to campaign strategy and execution.
The possibilities are endless! It would be incredible to combine my love for the arts, marketing, and concept development and see what this produces.
