Nigerian iconic photographer, David Ositelu, popularly called ‘Born Photo’, is dead. Mr Ositelu, who was aged 86, died in his sleep on Christmas Eve at his home in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Lekan Alabi, a chief in Ibadan, confirmed the death.
He said the deceased’s body was discovered by Nafisat, the daughter of his friend, after he returned from the mosque.
Mr Alabi, the Ekefa Olubadan of Ibadanland, said it was the deceased who took his passport photograph for his secondary school entrance examinations in 1963.
The deceased was also the photographer who took the passport photograph of the first Nigerian international passport with which the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State travelled to the United States of America in the early 1970s.
Mr Ositelu’s high profile clients included the late Obafemi Awolowo, Adegoke Adelabu Penkelemesi, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Adegboyega Adeniran, a retired colonel, among others
The deceased was born in Agege, Lagos State, and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army as a photographer during the Nigeria Civil War (1967 to 1970). He later became a high society photographer.
His studio was home to former Rashidi Ladoja, former governor of Oyo State, who is the incumbent Osi Olubadan.
It was also home to Alimi Adesokan, popularly called “Leemy”, a late Chairman of the defunct Ibadan District Council and Parliamentary Secretary to the late Premier Samuel Ladoke Akintola of Western Nigeria.
Others who found a home in Mr Ositelu’s studio were the late Captain Lateef Adegboyega Bello of the Nigerian Army; Abass Olawoyin, the goalkeeper of Nigeria Academicals Football Club, the first Nigerian soccer team to ever defeat any Ghanaian soccer side on their soil; and Iponriku Lakangudu masquerade, one of the seven leading Ibadan traditional masquerades, among others.
Premium Times
