Akinkunmi - Nigeria

Nickname: Deacon

I was born into an Anglican family and trained as a member of the boys brigade and the choir. Despite all this godly training, I was still a womaniser and an alcohol addict.

Something happened in 1988 when I fell in love with a lady, but she insisted that I had to become a member of her church if truly I loved her. For this reason, I decided to join her church in spite of the resistance of my parents.

Many months rolled by. One evening, I attended a revival service when the invited minister said: "There is a young man here that joined this church because of a woman. God wants him to give his life to Christ today. Tomorrow may be too late." I thought he was referring to someone else, but to my surprise, nobody came out. The minister insisted that the man was in that service. It was then that it dawned on me that he was referring to me and that was how I answered the call to the altar.

Since giving my life to Jesus, my life has not been the same. Even the admission into higher education that I had been looking for came to pass, and other miracles followed. After some years, I left that church to join the Redeemed Christian Church of God where I became the youth leader, head usher and eventually, a deacon. I am now happily married, and we have a kid.

I thank God for His mercy, for I don’t know where I would be without it, but I’m sure I would have been dead because of my reckless life then. Also, I give God all the glory for being faithful to me, for protecting me during the course of my job because a lot of my colleagues are dead.

My interest in photography started at a tender age when my father bought me a small camera which I used to snap just anything I saw on my way. This interest solidified during my higher institution days when I got to know that you could only succeed in anything where your interest lies. I attended Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria, to study photography. That made me a professional photographer today.

On 7 June 2007, I will be five years as a professional photographer, working with a notable magazine called TheNEWS, covering sports, news, crime, judiciary, the environment, culture, politics, entertainment and a host of other topics.

Today, my happiest moments are when I am in the field with my camera, taking creative shots.