Idan

Name: Idan
Brand: Raknida
Price: 55.0 USD
Availability: InStock

Omotayo Tajudeen

Photograph of a person in a pearl-studded crown and dark flared robe, looking over the shoulder with light-catching eyes, backlit in yellow-gold light, blue-white smoke rising around the robe.

$55.00

A crowned figure in a dark, sweeping robe stands in a blaze of gold light and rising smoke, eyes catching the glow. It is Omotayo Tajudeen's photograph of ìdán, the Yoruba word for wonder.

Idan is a Studio Edition: 20 museum-quality art prints in each size, each numbered in its white border. Every artwork comes with its Cultural Passport.

The Cultural Passport

Every order comes with the heritage documented.

Digital, emailed when your order ships: the work's story, the tradition it draws on and how it was made. 5 × 7 in (13 × 18 cm), ready to print and frame beside the work.

How it works →

Ìdán is a Yoruba word for wonder, even magic, and in Lagos speech an idan is someone so accomplished they seem to work it. Omotayo Tajudeen, a documentary photographer drawn to the colour and drama of Renaissance painting, photographs the word.

His sitter stands inside a blaze of yellow light, a pearl-studded crown on the head and a dark robe swept wide like a wing. Smoke rolls up from below and turns the cloth a cool, pale blue, so the figure seems to rise out of cloud. Look at the eyes: they catch the light and burn gold, turned over the shoulder towards us. It is a portrait of the moment a person becomes an occasion. Whatever the title finally names, the wonder or the one who carries it, Tajudeen makes the case that some people are lit from within.

Motifs in this work

Pearl-studded crown: royalty, or the bearing of someone treated as royal

Golden backlight: wonder that seems to come from within

Rising smoke: the figure lifted out of the everyday

Edition: Edition of 20 in each size · 20 across all sizes. Further runs possible once a size sells out, each tagged (Run 2). Edition numbers count the works sold through Raknida; the artist may also sell their own editions of this work.
Numbering: Number, title and artist printed in the white border.
Printing: Museum-quality giclée with archival pigment inks on museum-grade cotton fine art paper.
Year: 2022
Includes: Your numbered artwork and its Cultural Passport.

Size	Sheet	Image	Museum-Quality Print only	Framed	Available
S	8 × 12 in	6½ × 9¾ in	$55	+$65	20

The artist

Omotayo Tajudeen

Undeclared · Nigeria · 2 works on Raknida

Omotayo Tajudeen has spent six years as a documentary photographer in Nigeria, on subjects from agriculture to social and economic life. This includes work with the Nigeria Girl Guides Association on stories of empowerment and community. His photographs have appeared in international publications and been exhibited by ICP and FORMAT. He is drawn to the rich colour and dramatic composition of Renaissance painting. He also works in fine art, portraiture, fashion and beauty, with an eye for fabric and for the play of light and colour. He is a member of the Africa Photo-Journalism Database and Diversify Photo's Up Next group.

View full profile →All 2 works →