Just Do It — Lagos, Nigeria, 1999

"Just Do It" — Lagos, Nigeria, 1999 Fine Art Print — African Arenas Series by Thomas Hoeffgen

A young man stands in front of the Lagos National Stadium — one of the largest in Africa — and looks directly into the camera. He wears an oversized white Nike t-shirt. He did not ask to be photographed. He simply stood there and let it happen, with complete composure.

The stadium behind him rises like a concrete flying saucer against an overcast Lagos sky, its circular stands and steel scoreboard tower dwarfing everything around it. He doesn't look dwarfed. He looks like he belongs exactly where he is.

Shot on film in 1999 during Hoeffgen's first trip to Nigeria — a city he describes as intimidating, electric, and unlike anywhere else — this portrait was left out of the African Arenas book at the editor's suggestion. Too commercial, they said. The Nike logo too loud. But time has a way of changing what a photograph means, and what once read as branding now reads as something closer to a statement of intent. The stadium. The slogan. The gaze. Just do it.

African Arenas was published by Hatje Cantz (2010) and exhibited at the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Tampa Museum of Art. Hoeffgen is a recipient of the International Photography Award and the PDN Photo Annual Award.

Available as a museum-quality fine art print.