How a Nigerian-American from Roseville Ended Up at the Obama Portrait Unveiling

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The day President Obama’s official portrait was unveiled at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery, I saw a picture on Facebook of my friend Brad Ogbonna, a Nigerian-American photographer from Roseville, standing shoulder to shoulder with Obama in a kind of half-embrace, up against the grey backdrop of a studio, both of them beaming. Further snooping on Brad’s Instagram, I found a couple of interesting details about the striking portrait of Obama against leafy green vines by superstar Brooklyn artist Kehinde Wiley. Brad explained that the flowers in the portrait were from Hawaii, Illinois, and Kenya. And then an intriguing caption: "President Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley. Two icons that I admire. Extremely grateful and honored to have been a part of this.” The photo jogged my memories of Brad getting immortalized in a regal Wiley stained glass window a couple of years ago. I wanted to know how Brad was involved with the presidential portrait, so we spent an hour on the phone talking about everything that led to that moment. We touched on Brad growing up in Roseville and attending University of Wisconsin-River Falls, his career as a photographer in New York, and what it’s like to work in Kehinde Wiley’s studio.

I met you kind of through the cool MCAD kids, and Alex Smith, the guy who did Minnesota Vice. That was your crowd. Are you an MCAD grad?

No! I’m a River Falls grad, so I used to just drive back to Minneapolis for the weekends to hang out. Couple of my friends went to MCAD, and then I was hanging out with Alex Smith and a bunch of other kids from Minneapolis, and started going to, like, Too Much Love. I’ve been friends with Alex since we were 16. He used to have a big studio in high school, so we went downtown to hang out.

So when did you start carrying a camera with you wherever you went?

Around 2008. I studied abroad and I was just taking photos out there for fun. I did a program called the traveling classroom. And we just bopped around to 11 different major cities. And then in between those cities we had free time to go anywhere we wanted for four days. Really cool. I spent time in London, Madrid, Barcelona, Dublin, Zagreb, Paris, Berlin, Freiberg, Oslo. It was an amazing trip. I just kept taking photos. I met a lot of people out there who were in the arts. And came back with a drive to do something more creative. I started hanging out in Minneapolis more. Hanging out with MCAD friends a little bit more. And all the kids doing shit in Minneapolis that seemed cool.

My friends who are from Africa and from the Indian subcontinent, their parents are almost more ambitious for them than they are for themselves. Here you are, gravitating toward the art scene but pursuing a very serious course of study in international relations and political science. What did your parents think about you dabbling in the art scene?

They just thought of it like a little hobby. They were kind of indifferent to it. I’d be posting photos, and I would show them stuff. They weren’t that receptive to it because they didn’t understand the purpose of it.

Were they supportive of college?

Yeah! For Nigerian families, that’s like their biggest thing, going to college. At one point I was thinking about joining the Air Force because I didn’t know if I actually wanted to go to college. So my dad pushed me, and I applied to a bunch of schools. I had pretty good grades and was smart enough to get into most places. But since I was going to be paying for it for myself, I realized River Falls was significantly cheaper than most other schools.

When did you move to New York?

I had a campus exchange the first time from 2009–2010 at Queens College in Flushing, New York. So I had a little time away from Wisconsin. But I officially moved to New York in June of 2011.

How soon were you landing gigs in New York?

When I moved to New York, I wasn’t even searching for gigs in photography. I was applying for NGOs and trying to get jobs in the political field. But nothing was panning out because, you know, everyone wants two or three years of experience, and the internships for that field are usually unpaid, but they want you to be there for 48 hours a week. So coming with no money, I couldn’t do that. I was interning at this movie production company, and when Fashion Week rolled around in September, a friend of mine who was linked to Task Force Agency, this Minneapolis-based agency, was facilitating a project for Diet Coke. They asked me to cover that for them—going to different fashion shows and capturing influencers.

Which influencers? Would I have heard of any of them?

There is this guy Bryanboy who is pretty popular still.

He was on Tyra Banks' America’s Next Top Model.

Yeah. I think he’s still in the influencer game. It was Bryanboy and Suzi Wu and Ciara.

When do you start doing photojournalism?

Shortly after Fashion Week, in November, I found out my dad had cancer. He told me that he had Hodgkins lymphoma stage 4. So the day after Thanksgiving, I left New York for a month to spend time, and he ended up passing away December 26, 2011. After that, I put everything—my jobs and my plans—on hiatus. In our culture, you get buried back where you were born. I hadn’t been back to our village since 2001. So I went out there for two months during his funeral and at the time, I thought I was going to make a documentary about it. So I got a camera, had a Kickstarter, and planned everything out. Got there, took a bunch of footage, took a bunch of photos, came back and realized the photos were much stronger than the video….because I had no background doing video. It ended up evolving into a book called Jisike that I self-published in 2012. I probably sold 2000 books. A little bit later that year I got in contact with some people at Vice UK. They emailed me and said they really loved the book and had a project in mind for me that had a similar vibe to it. So, in the summer of 2013, I ended up doing a project with Diesel and Edun, which was facilitated by Vice UK. It was a project called Studio Africa where they sent me to Johannesburg, South Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, and Lagos, Nigeria.

I think I remember following you on Instagram during that journey. And I was like, wow, Brad! Good for you!

Yeah, that was a crazy trip. I spent two months traveling across Africa capturing the behind the scenes of music videos shot with African artists. Super fun trip. So then I came back and that’s when I started taking up the more editorial gigs. That was 2013, and from there it’s kind of been a slow build to this last year, where things really blew up. Started shooting for the Atlantic. Did some stuff for GQ. Vogue. All the big editorial. And a lot of different commercial gigs have been popping up.

As you’ve evolved into doing more studio portraiture, whether it’s Gabby Sidibe or Lil Yachty. What’s your game when it comes to establishing a rapport?

Music. Playing something that I think they’ll enjoy and then talking about where they come from. And I feel like that’s always the most interesting thing for me, to know where people are from, and then I tell them where I’m from. People are always like, “Oh shit. I don’t know anything about Minnesota, what’s that like?” (Laughs.) And then you kinda break ‘em down with that. People really love Prince, and saying you’re from Minnesota, I feel like every time you bring that up people are like, “Oh yeah, that’s where Prince is from.” You establish ground with people in that sense. Lil Yachty was funny because his first song was based off of Minnesota.

Yes, it was.

And from there, you know, I talk about some of the places I’ve traveled to and ask whether they’ve been there or not. Talk to them like I talk to anybody else.

So let's talk about Kehinde Wiley. You met through a friend?

I live in the Pratt neighborhood in Brooklyn. And I still hang out with a lot of Pratt kids, people who used to go there (to the school). One of my friends was working in Kehinde’s studio doing some design work. And he had mentioned that Kehinde was looking for somebody to come help with some photography stuff. So I told him to tell him about me. And he actually followed through with it and presented me with his office manager. He showed him my work and he invited me to the opening of his Brooklyn Museum show. So that’s where I first met him. I think it was March, 2015. I’m Nigerian and his dad’s from Nigeria and so we hit it off on that. I only got a chance to speak to him for a minute, tops.

I’m sure he was a busy man.

A very busy man. He was working the room and people were all trying to talk to him. I didn’t hear from him for a number of weeks. And I was like, okay, he probably didn’t like me or whatever, it’s probably not going to work out. And that’s when he hit me back and was like "We’re [going on an international trip], do you want to come?" That became my first job with them [Wiley and his team].

How often do you work with him?

It’s project by project. He always has a need for a photographer because he paints from photos.

It’s like the bat phone rings, and you go.

Exactly. I reschedule everything. Those are projects that are always the most fun. Because you know, we’re working on things that are going to live long beyond us. And we get to meet very interesting people, and we’re going to different places where we’re highlighting people from different communities that are often overlooked.

You were cast in your own Kehinde Wiley stained glass window—part of his critically acclaimed Lamentation series. When that happened I was like, “Oh my god, Brad is going to live forever now. Brad just became an angel.”

[Laughs.] Yeah, right?

You said the stained glass window happened after one day he told you, “If you ever grow a mustache, I’ll paint your portrait.”

[Laughs.] We were shooting like two summers ago, and I remember I had just grown out my mustache for whatever reason. And we ended up having a shoot during that week. It wasn’t planned. It was so hot, like 90 degrees, and I was wearing a pair of Jordans, cut off denim jeans, and a tank top. Kehinde was like, “jump into this shot.” So I jumped into the shot and I didn’t realize it, but that image ended up becoming the key piece of his stained glass window project. It was a huge, huge honor.

How emotional was it to be placed in a Kehinde Wiley stained glass window? Not only are you in stained glass window, which has straight-up divine connotations, but you’re in Paris, in the middle of the art world, and you’re a kid from Roseville with Nigerian parents. Did your whole life flash in your head?

It was a huge moment. An amazing feeling to be adorned in that fashion. And on that scale. And in Paris, at the Petite Palais, which is a really respected museum. So yeah, it was incredible, and it showed up full circle—to be a part of this project, to be behind the scenes, and then to be in front of it. I was so happy to see it. I regret not taking my mom. I should’ve taken my mom with me.

From there, when does the Obama thing happen?

I don’t know if we can talk about the dates too specifically, because it’s not only Kehinde that’s being kind of adamant about [being guarded about the process], it’s the Smithsonian.

But you were involved in the preparation.

You can say I was involved in the preparation. Because I don’t want to make it seem like I’m one of the heroes of it. I’m just a piece of the machine, a piece of the Kehinde Wiley studio. It’s his vision that brings it together. And, you know, my creative input is there and it’s recognized, but as far as talking about it, I try not to take away any shine from his vision.

Was there a seriousness to the proceedings? Can you comment generally on the tone?

I’d love to tell you all these things, but I can’t talk about the process too much. But it was very exciting and Obama is the most charismatic person I’ve ever been around in my life. You understand that he’s the real deal. He is so witty and intelligent and kind. And he notices everybody in the room.

So how did you get your picture taken with the President? Because you’re beaming, man. You’re obviously so proud of that moment.

Obama is hyper aware of who he is. He’s also a very nice person, so at the end of a shoot on anything with him, he’ll say, “Okay, now I’ll take pictures.” So everybody in the room jumped in for the photo. Everybody got their chance.

You can’t comment on the nature of your role, but you did play a role in an historic moment in American history.

Yeah, it’s a great feeling. And it’s something I’ve been tight-lipped about for a long time. So it’s nice to see it out in the world and to see the impact that it’s had.

What do you think about the reception of the portrait? Do you feel protective of Kehinde?

I think the reaction has been great. I’m not paying attention to anything negative. People are always going to have something to say, especially considering who the people involved are. Just knowing that people who are often left out of the conversation of art, and people who don’t necessarily have access to art in the same way, want to speak on it? Nobody in my family is really into the arts. Nobody goes to museums, nobody understands it. But the fact that all of them are so excited about it, I felt so proud of that. It’s interesting how it’s taken off on the Internet. It’s really cool to see a painting in 2018 mean so much to people.

Mpls.St.Paul Daily Edit

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