“In every corner of the country, from the sprawling wetlands of the south to the undulating plateaus of the north, there is a rhythm that binds everyone,” Aako Ugbabe, an engineer and physicist with interest in astrophysicist and philosophy, notes in his exhibition, Wild Meets Urban, which is holding at Didi Museum, on Akin Adesola, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The show ends today. He had turned to his long standing passion for nature walks, bird watching to capture this metaphor. Nature is seen through his eyes.

Like the philosopher he is, Ugbabe interrogates movements of objects on earth. He concludes that the lens captures a moment, but the heart the connection between the objects, thus, to protect the biodiversity, humanity must learn to protect one another.

The architects, that is, insects and spiders, weaving intricate, geometric wonders; the survivors, that’s wildflowers and grasses blooming in the most unexpected places; the navigators: birds that traverse the skies oblivious of borders or boundaries, bridging the gap between the heavens and earth all are a proof that “nature was not made for man, human are of nature.”

Watching seagulls gave him insight into the aerodynamics of bird flight: The subject of his new show, titled, Wild Meets Urban. Here birds in their natural habitat, insects, butterflies and wildflowers, and people engage in their regular occupation froen in time.

This exhibition is not merely a collection of photographs, it interrogates the connectivity between biodiversity and community: a visual testimony of deep-seated relationship between humans and their environments.

“Whether it is woman on her way to the local market or the stillness of a city under a vast sahelian sky, these images reminds us that our identities are not separate from the land they are birthed,” says Ugbabe.

Beyond the grand vistas, the photographs invite you to look at salient issues of life such as religion, status and orientation. Though often used to divide humanity, they whisper simple truths: “If we cannot master the art of living together in peace, we cannot hope to protect the nature that sustains us,” Ugbabe admonishes.

As you walk through the room to see the exhibits, the images remind you that the butterfly in the garden, the child in the village and the grass in the field are all interconnected .

In his curatorial statement, Moses Ohiomokhare says, though trained as a scientist, Ugbabe is engaged in building a gallery and cultural centers “approaches photography with the sensibility of a cultural observer and storyteller: his practice demonstrates how disciplines can intersect to produce a thoughtful visual language that combines analytical attention with poetic sight.”

He continues, his body of works “sits at the intersection of documentation and artistic mediation, inviting viewers into a visual narrative shaped by memory, identity, and lived experience.”

Through his lens, landscapes, communities and everyday encounters are transformed into images that speak about a place, belonging and passage of time. Jos, is the heart of the interrogation, and here, the photographs move to find perfect explanation.

As Ugbabe explains, the works are the product of covid-19, when the ensuing lockdown led to reduced human activities, and sensing this, birds and others suddenly began their incursion into human territories to interrogate “what possibly could have happened.” Thus, the wild came to meet the urban.

In one of the works, which are not titled, Ugbabe lens captures the Narina’s Trogon, a very rare specie in this part of the world. The bird is sitting on a tree in his compound.

In another work, he captures some women on their way to ply their trade of fura da nono, kindirimu and man shanu. Emerging from their ruga, resplendent in their clothes, they ran , when a photograph of theirs was about to be taken. This women represent the dichotomy between the wild and urban. They live in the wild in their ruga, tend to cattle, pound millet for fura.

He says, “I want to take pictures but they take off and run, or hide their faces or are resigned to the that I had already clicked the shutter.”

According to Abraham Onoriode Oghobase, “nature sits at the heart of his practice. It offers him a rhythm of slowness , opening space for chance encounters —- those fleeting, fragile moments that often passed unnoticed.”

Oghobase adds, “there is a distinct joy in the way he shares stories of these encounters —- a quiet excitement that reveals an awakening. Through photography, one senses the reemergence of a creative impulse, perhaps, long held in abeyance.”

He reveals, his particular fascination with documenting birds across the landscapes of Jos and Otukpo speaks to both scientific curiosity and a poetic sensitivity.

Ugbabe was born on October 16, 1949. He had his education at the Ahmadu Bello University, where he graduated with a first class honors in electrical engineering. He obtained a Ph.D in atomic physics from The Flinder’s University, Adelaide.

Alongside his art and humanitarian pursuits, Ugbabe is engaged in building a gallery and cultural centre, Padma Arts, as a legacy project to encourage all forms of artistic pursuits: music, photography, poetry, theatre and others.