Taken at Ebute Metta, a neighbourhood in Lagos, in May 2016, this shot by Sebastian Barros gives a wide vista of “the many hundreds of log rafts waiting to be processed in the sawmills of Ebute Metta, located under the Third Mainland Bridge”. Cut down from forests all over West Africa and transported to this industrial landscape in Lagos, the timber dealer industry is worth millions. “I was attracted by the morning mist and the textures of the logs rafts in the foreground. My eye was drawn to the workers, specifically the man in the right-hand corner looking upwards.” Framed by the expanse of negative space, Barros gives a sense of scale, the labourers set against their environment and indomitable nature. Sawmills is part of a wider project Barros shot on life and entrepreneurship in contemporary Nigeria, and is presented in London in support of Street Child UK.
