Adeolu Osibodu

Contributing photographer for Vital project highlighting irrecoverable carbon in Liberia

Artist Statements

Visiting Liberia was life-changing in many ways. Not only did I get to document the spirit of the country, I got to experience this journey through the eyes and efforts of the conservationists.

This gave me a more profound understanding of what I saw and a new appreciation for the life-long process of conservation of its ecosystems.

The journey itself across the country with the team played such a significant role to the project, like “explorers in the wild”. Learning from their experiences and watching them navigate a vast variety of terrain.

A very interesting observation I made was the bond shared between the CI Libera team and the County Mayors, Town heads and the Frontline conservationists from the communities. I witnessed a natural sense of passion and commitment towards the same goal.

We visited the Grand Cape Mount County which had places like Robertsport, Mandu, Wakolor along with counties like Nimba county, Grand Bassa county and Margibi county. The immense beauty of Liberia cannot be quantified, which made me wonder why the tourism industry wasn’t ahead of its current state as the nature of Liberia is one of a kind. This situation could be unfortunately justified by the recent history of the war and it set-back on the people, environment, and economy.

One thing that was constant regardless was the pride of Liberians to be Liberians and you could easily see that through the spirit of the people. In a way, this could be seen as a rebirth and the progression towards a new Liberia.

This project “Irrecoverable Carbon” was approached with the aim to hold a sense of surrealism reflecting the indescribable beauty of the country and the feeling one gets while experiencing it. Huge rainforests endlessly into the horizon that literally make it effortless to breathe.

Oftentimes, Liberia felt like another planet or a fusion of multiple. The weather constantly morphed itself to different conditions and it changed from extremely sunny to heavy rain in minutes. It ultimately felt like magic watching the people adapt their lives around this fascinating climate.