By Ebele Orakpo
It has been proved time and time again that there is no stopping a man with a vision and determination. No obstacle is strong enough to stop him from achieving his set goal except death. So it was for  Mr Bartram Achunike Obidiozor, the Chief Executive Officer of BB Photographers, Obosi, Anambra State, who despite his humble background, became a household name in some parts of the country.

In a chat with Vanguard in his country home in Obosi, BB, as he is fondly called, spoke on how he ventured into photography in the early days and  the challenges, noting that photography has been very good to him. Excerpts:

Speaking on his background, Mr Bartram Obidiozor said: “I was born in 1936 in Obosi. I came from a very humble background and as a result, I had to live with different people at different times for the first 26 years of my life. One of them was the late Mr. Sunday Nnoba, then a school teacher in Makurdi. Being a very brilliant chap, I was given double promotion twice so I left elementary school earlier than I was supposed to. Unfortunately, I could not go further due to paucity of funds.”

BB in his heydays, doing what he knows best.

As it is often said, once there is life, there is hope and so young BB, instead of bemoaning his fate and blaming his parents as some are wont to do, decided to learn a trade so as to become useful to himself, family and society. “After my Standard Six, I went to study photography under late Mr. Rollings Nwakobi, a very popular photographer in Makurdi in those days. While there, I learnt the rudiments of photography but unfortunately,  I could not leave because there was no money to buy the necessary equipment.

I therefore stayed with Rollings for four years and in the end, I could still not raise money to buy my equipment. Mr. Nnoba then helped me to get a place in Gboko where I worked for one year. It was there that I saved some money to buy a camera and other things I needed.

The camera cost me less than £2. This was in Gboko in 1958.”  Thus began his career that has entered its 53rd year. Despite all odds, BB still counts himself fortunate. Said he: “I was really fortunate because God blessed me and granted me favour with the people.

BB Photographers was reigning in Gboko in those days. In fact, there were three people in that area that were very popular and once they passed on the streets, people will begin to hail them.

The first was Tor Tiv, the second was J. S. Tarka, the third was BB. I had a small motorcycle in those days, BSA Bantam and people would follow behind chanting BB, BB… People liked me a lot and as a result, I was getting a lot of jobs both from government and private individuals. I was very close to the staff of American Briscoe and their families and so most of the jobs I did came from them.

I was so loved by the White community that they had planned to send me abroad for further training but the civil war broke out and I had to relocate to the East and continued my business.”  This favour may not be unconnected with the passion he had for the job as he noted: “I was hardworking and took my job seriously.

I made sure I turn out high quality jobs by using high quality materials so I was called upon to handle almost all photography jobs. My clients cut across all strata of society – the rich, the poor, the young, the old, the famous etc.

Photography, for me, was a life career and there was no other profession for me so I threw all my weight into it. There was a pamphlet published in America in 1962. I was the only African photographer featured in it and also I came second in a Baby Photo contest in Nigeria sometime ago.”

According to the ace photographer, “Photography has indeed been good to me. I am blessed with seven children who are all graduates today and doing well in their chosen fields. They were all trained with proceeds from photography. I was the first photography practitioner in Obosi to ride a car. God has been so good to me. I was also able to erect a modern building with money from photography.”

Old soldier, they say, never dies. This holds true for BB who has been able to move from the analog camera to digital camera in use presently. “I am still actively working as a photographer because I am strong and healthy and not out of necessity because my children are taking very good care of me and my wife,” he enthused.

Comparing photography in the early days to what it is now, BB said: “Everyday, new things are discovered, old ways of doing things give way to new and easier methods and photography is not an exception. In those days, we were using analog cameras. The camera had only four plates and if in the course of your job, you exhaust the four, before you can load another film, you must look for a drum and when you find one, you get into it and cover it with a blanket to ensure that light does not get in. So you’ve created a kind of dark room to enable you offload the film and load a new one. And when you are through and come out of the drum, you are soaked from head to toe with sweat.

There were no enlargers at the time so we used the camera to do the enlargements. There is a way you mount it; you bring your slide and the negative you want to enlarge and place it on the slide. You then place the slide behind the camera and it will project light into the dark room.

This way, you can enlarge the photo to any size you want and it will still come out very sharp. Today’s photographers don’t know all these. Photographers in those days can tell you what photography is all about because they saw it all. We have laboratories where negatives are processed today so present-day photographers don’t really know anything about processes involved in getting the end product. Though we suffered to an extent, yet, we made money.”

Speaking on the challenges faced in the course of his business, he noted that the major challenge was funds “but as I started working, I was making enough money to buy some of the other things needed. Another challenge was the absence of light where we lived. I was among those who really suffered in the course of practising photography. Although photography has greatly improved over the years with modern technology, we still made the best out of what we had.”

He stated that while civil servants were being paid between £6 and  £20 depending on the level, he was making up to £40 a month which was a lot of money.

Comparing picture quality in those days to what is obtainable now, he said: “Photos taken in those days lasted for years unlike what we have now. We used to wash the pictures very well. It took about three hours to wash a photo and sometimes we soak them overnight so that all the chemicals would be washed off and that helps preserve the photographs.

But today, they don’t take time to wash photos so initially, they look beautiful but after sometime, they begin to change colour and fade. But if you see some of the photos I took in the late 50s and early 60s, you will think they are recent photos.

And then the materials in those days were of a high quality, you were sure of what you were getting unlike today that fake products have flooded the market.”

Finally, he advised the youths to be patient and obedient if they must achieve greatness.