Meet Nigeria’s First Professional Photographer, Jonathan Adagogo Green.

Jonathan Adagogo Green was born in Bonny, present-day Rivers State in 1873.

He was the son of a successful Ibani Ijo palm oil trader named Chief Sunju Dublin Green, who worked closely with expatriate traders and missionaries.

Jonathan studied photography in Sierra Leone and then established a studio in Bonny

He served as the primary photographer for the British in the newly formed colony of Nigeria, he also documented prominent chiefs and their families, particularly in Bonny, Kalabari, Opobo, and Okrika.

He photographed scenes of daily and ritual life including Markets, women making handicrafts, iron workers, and weddings; as well as commerce and buildings; both administrative and religious.

Some of his great iconic photographs, such as that of Oba Ovonramwen in 1897, Bonny and Opobo war canoes were published in prestigious newspapers and magazines like the London Illustrated News and other European publications.

Jonathan Adagogo Green died young in the year 1905, at only 32 years of age

Although his professional stamp, “J. A. Green” long concealed his African identity behind a British-sounding name, he is now recognized as Nigeria’s first professional photographer.
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