Africa Entertainment News of Friday, 15 January 2021

Source: mynigeria.com

Fortune: The inside story of Davido's official photographer

Fortune and Davido play videoFortune and Davido

He is easily identified with a neatly designed blue and white watermark in the middle of most of Davido's pictures on social media.

Since he began this journey about five years ago, he has become by far the most visible photographer in the entertainment industry, outshining his peers and threatening the place of his older colleagues.

Born Fortunate Umurname Peter in Bariga, a suburb of Lagos State on July 10, 1997, Fortune as he is popularly referred to in the showbiz revealed he was born into a "not-so-wealthy family."

As he spoke to MyNigeria in an exclusive interview from the comfort of one Davido's Banana Island mansions, Fortune said his father wasn't rich but he made himself and his other siblings comfortable.

“Growing up, my father was able to put food on my table his seven kids and he was able to send us to school.”

He climbed the academic ladder knowing the odds were stacked against him. The bus-stop was secondary school. He had planned his tertiary education but his father had become feeble due to age. The financial support stopped, however, the encouragements and support on the sideline continued.

At the time, Fortune was in his level 100 in school but had to pull out to the dismay of the family.

The reality of the situation dawned on Fortune then he realized he had to be a man for himself and the family.

Without any kind of tertiary support and qualification, he said he had to make ends meet for himself. His love for graphic designing led him to leave Lagos and intern for an organization in Owerri.

“…so, I used to be a graphic designer in Owerri, at a point in time, I needed to relocate until I started to intern for a publishing company.”

“What they do is, they print books, banners. What I did was designing then we send it to the flexographic printing machine to print billboards, banners in large formats,” he said.

After pursuing graphic designing to a point, he said he felt the time was right to “up his game”.

Speaking in one of the most unassuming postures, Fortune disclosed that the upsurge in the number of photographers who used the social media platform, Instagram in 2015 was enough to convince him to learn photography.

With no certificate, camera, idea, or background in photography, the University of YouTube was his only hope. After a year of self-studying, his aunty in the U.S bought him his first camera.

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