Celebrating Olusegun Obasanjo at 80! Check out the Former President’s New Photos as he Covers ThisDay Style

TY Bello shot former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, for his ThisDay Style cover as he marks his 80th birthday and we love how candid and real the portraits are.

TY Bello also had quite an interesting story to share about the backdrop that was used for the shoot.

She posted on her page:

OLUSEGUN OBASANJO : GOLDEN
About 13 years ago I asked an assistant to help me source a gold velvet fabric for backdrop for my portraits .It was meant to be large and in the tone of gold …rich.. like the highlight on a very dark persons skin…He didn’t nearly find what I wanted.
He however came back with a small sized unimpressed ash colored fabric that looked really old.. I was disappointed .
It didn’t occur to me that he just handed me gold .. real gold.. that boring piece of fabric became my favorite backdrop . I went on to photograph 3 Nigerian presidents against it. It was also the best shade for post production . It was light enough to compliment most skin tones ., yet dark enough to be augmented in post production.
In this portrait my ash colored backdrop was brushed to a rich gold to compliment Baba’s aso oke.
Sometimes we don’t find exactly what we are looking for. .. but we must learn to appreciate what we have been handed … it may just be golden #tybellophotography #photostories #obasanjo at 80 for @thisdaystyle”

See more photos below.

Photo Credit: Instagram – @tybello