Akinremi explores intersection of landscape, cultural Identity through fine art photography

By Damiete Braide

Segun Emmanuel Akinremi is a UK-based  fine art photographer and visual artist. His body of work explores the evocative intersection of landscape, memory and cultural identity.

Akinremi’s journey is a fascinating study in the making of an artist. Since 2018, he has laid the foundations of his professional career in Nigeria but his relocation to the United Kingdom in 2023 marked a major turning point in his creative output. Instead of continuing down the road he had already paved in high-end visual media, Akinremi chose to dive into the British art scene, including the formal establishment of his UK fine-art practice by mid-2024. This change has enabled him to ground his technical expertise in the gallery circuit of the UK, presenting at a series of exhibitions that question our perceptions of the environments we move through daily.

In the artist’s statement, he said this of his works and practice: “My practice exists at the fluid boundary between applied and visual art. I am a collector of the ‘unnoticed moments’, those quiet, liminal spaces of everyday life that are often overlooked but are loaded with social and cultural significance.

In his still photography works, Akinremi uses the British landscape as a canvas to explore the weight of memory and the complexities of human journeys. His work is a call to stop. It asks the viewer to think about the architecture of belonging and the invisible threads that connect our personal histories to the spaces we live in.

Akinremi whose career success is a story of technical foundation meeting conceptual maturity, stated that his starting in the vibrant, fast-paced media landscape of Lagos in 2018, helped him with the building of  a reputation for high-end visual production.

His 2023 move to the UK, however, acted as a motivation for a deeper, more introspective exploration of his medium. In 2024, he makes a conscious move from creating for others to artwork that makes others observe for the collective, marking his transition to a formalised UK fine-art practice.

This journey, from the lively streets of Nigeria to the contemplative landscapes of Kent and beyond, informs his unique ‘outsider-looking-in’ perspective, which allows him to document the UK’s heritage and environment through a fresh, inquisitive lens that seeks to bridge cultural divides through visual archaeology.

In reviewing his piece, featured in the Photopia showcase at Hastings Arts Forum, Akinremi’s capacity for deep atmospheric storytelling becomes evident. The image centers on a historic English clock tower, captured in a light that makes the heavy brickwork feel strangely weightless, almost floating against the elements. Encircled by the untamed, sprawling branches of winter trees, the structure acts as an anchor for historical memory.

As a critical piece within the Hidden Assets exhibition, the photograph subverts standard heritage documentation. Akinremi looks past the physical monument to how generations leave their invisible imprint on the landscape. It is a significant observation from a diasporic perspective, turning a classic British landmark into a quiet meditation on endurance and memory.

The second work under critical review was selected for the Boundaries and Borders Exhibition at Henarch Galleries in London.  The art piece has a different feel to it. In this piece you see a hot air balloon floating high up in the air over a small road in Kent. The road is very narrow. It winds its way through the countryside.

The difference between the road and the balloon is distinctly clear because the road is hard. It shows how people have to move on the earth while the balloon is free and it shows how people can escape from all that.

By showing a hot air balloon with a brand name flying over a very old fashioned and peaceful part of England, Akinremi is making a quiet comment about how the world is becoming more connected.

The road curves and the sky is really open it makes someone feel unsure about what to do. It feels like one is stuck between wanting to stay and feeling like one needs to keep moving. The title “Boundaries of the Ascent”is a name for this feeling. It shows the difference between the road, on the ground and the open sky. The road is solid and the sky is open it is a contrast. Boundaries of the Ascent is an art piece that makes me think about this feeling.

Segun Emmanuel Akinremi is becoming an important photographer of African heritage. His photographs are changing the way we tell stories with pictures. He is doing this by looking at memories and how people migrate from one place, to another and what that means for the culture. Segun Emmanuel Akinremi’s work is very interesting because he is using fine-art photography to show us these things in a compelling way.