Amarachi Nnoli blends elements of studio photography to examine Igbo identity in Nigeria. Visiting Adazi-Ani, her paternal hometown in southeastern Nigeria, she uses portraiture to explore not only the image of a person, but as a vessel of culture, memory, and representation.

This photo was taken in my village after my father’s 60th birthday mass in our Anambra home. The subjects of the photo are my paternal grandmother in the middle looking directly at me, flanked on both sides by my grand aunties. I think about this photo a lot – sad