Jonathan Adagogo Green: The Bonny Photographer Who Preserved Early Nigerian History
Jonathan Adagogo Green was one of Nigeria’s earliest known professional photographers. Born in Bonny in 1873, he opened a photography studio in 1891 and documented life across Bonny, Opobo, Brass and Calabar. At a time when many images of Africa were produced by colonial visitors, Green photographed Nigerian rulers, families, merchants, ceremonies and everyday communities from within the society he recorded. His work captured both local authority and the growing influence of British colonial rule in the Niger Delta. Among his best-known images is the 1897 photograph of Oba Ovonramwen Nogbaisi of Benin aboard the SS Ivy as the monarch was taken into exile after the British invasion of Benin. Although Green died in 1905, his photographs remain valuable records of Nigeria’s people, culture and colonial-era history, with works held in major historical collections.
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