Photographers seek good laboratories, other facilities, from govt

A professional photographer, Mr Gbolahan Adebayo, on Monday, called on all tiers of government to help photographers in providing all facilities, including good laboratories to facilitate their works.

Adebayo, the Public Relations Officer, Professional Photographers Association of Nigeria (PPAN), Lagos, made the call in an interview with Newsverge in Lagos.

He said this was a way of creating jobs for those interested in learning photography, who, would also learn with modern equipment if assisted by government.

“We do not have good laboratories and modern equipment to do our job properly; we are still using obsolete equipment.

“We need to create awareness for the people and photographers about the lucrative business in photography,’’ Adebayo said.

He said that those currently deploying the digital technology in photography were on the right track “but not everyone can afford it’’.

“Digital photography is a technology in photography that uses computers and some other technological accessories to produce more quality pictures.

“That is what most of our people need in the photography business and also high quality digital cameras which are exorbitant.

“This is why we are calling on government to help us,’’ he said.

The public relations officer, however, said that it would be good if government could also assist in giving loans to photographers to buy the necessary equipment they need.

Adebayo said that photographers needed a lot of documentation to do to safeguard their works.

“In this digital era in photography, it is easy to edit photographs on laptops; and help store a lot of photographs.

“It will add value to what we are doing.

“It does not need the use of negative films or dark rooms to do the jobs but these equipment are very costly.

“So, if we can get loans and acquire these things, the job will be easier,’’ he said.

Adebayo said that if photographers would buy cameras of N100,000 to about N1million, it would not be easy to make the money back as quickly as possible but with loan, they could buy and pay back gradually.

“People refuse to pay high on photographs. They will tell you it is just photo but a lot of things go into it.

“The computer has special equipment that makes photographs to come out good and nice,’’ he said.