Andrew Dosunmu is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographers As in other ...

and filmmaker who came to prominence in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

after directing music videos for various acclaimed artists including Isaac Hayes,

Angie Stone Angela Laverne Brown (born December 18, 1961) known professionally as Angie Stone, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. She rose to fame in the late 1970s as member of the hip hop trio The Sequence. In the early 1990s ...

, Common,

Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. Chapman is best known for her hit singles "Fast Car" and "Give Me One Reason". Chapman was signed to Elektra Records by Bob Krasnow in 1987. The following year she released ...

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean (; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, musician, and actor. At the age of nine, Jean immigrated to the United States with his family. He first achieved fame as a member of the New Jersey hip hop group the Fugees, a ...

Kelis Kelis Rogers-Mora (; born August 21, 1979), known mononymously as Kelis, is an American singer, songwriter and a professionally trained chef. At age 14, she was admitted to New York's Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Perform ...

, Aaron Neville, Talib Kweli, and Maxwell (musician), Maxwell. He is the director of the 2011 drama film ''Restless City'', which premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. His next film, 2013's ''Mother of George'', also premiered at Sundance, and was the Closing Night selection for Maryland Film Festival 2013. Dosunmu lives between New New York City, York City and Lagos, Nigeria.

Career

Photography Dosunmu started his career as a design assistant at the fashion house of Yves Saint Laurent (brand), Yves Saint Laurent. He later became a creative director (serving in that position for album covers for such artists as Erykah Badu and Public Enemy (group), Public Enemy) and a fashion

, with his photographs appearing in various international magazines. In 2007, he was honored with the request to speak at the TED (conference), TED Global conference. Dosunmu has directed and photographed numerous commercials for print advertising & TV for companies such as AT&T, General Motors, Levi's, Giordano (store), Giordano Jeans, Kenneth Cole Productions, Kenneth Cole, ''Buddy System'' for American Broadcasting Company, ABC, ''My Kind of Town'' for AMES, ''Soul Food'' for Showtime (TV network), Showtime. Photographs from his documentary ''The African Game'' were published in a coffee-table book by powerHouse Books. Dosunmu was recently selected to participate in the photography exhibition ''Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary Photography'' at the International Center of Photography. Dosunmu has been a contributing

for publications like ''Vibe (magazine), Vibe'', ''Clam'', ''The Fader, Fader'', ''Face'', ''Paper (magazine), Paper'', ''Interview (magazine), Interview'', ''i-D'', ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue Hommes'' – France and Italy, ''Complex (magazine), Complex'', and ''Ebony (magazine), Ebony''.

Directing

Dosunmu made his directorial debut with a music video for Isaac Hayes in 1996. He went on to direct music videos for many other artists including Angie Stone, Common, Wyclef Jean, Kelis, Aaron Neville, Maxwell, Tracy Chapman and Talib Kweli. His 1999 documentary "''Hot Irons''", won best documentary at FESPACO. Dosunmu has directed episodes of a widely acclaimed South African television series ''Yizo, Yizo'', which dramatizes the policy debates around education at a Johannesburg high school in post-apartheid South Africa. In 2010, in a lead up to the first ever FIFA World Cup, World Cup in Africa, Dosunmu produced another documentary, ''The African Game'', in which he explores the game of football (soccer) in the continent and its relations to the African culture in all its diversity. His transition into feature films came in 2011 with the film ''Restless City'', which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to generally positive reviews.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dosunmu, Andrew Living people Filmmakers from Lagos Nigerian expatriates in the United States Nigerian film directors Nigerian photographers Year of birth missing (living people) Yoruba filmmakers Yoruba photographers