By Oghenekevwe Laba
“Photography is love. Photography is entertainment. Photography is fun and has positive impact on my profession.”
This was the response of Guardian Crime Reporter, Mr. Sunday Odita, while responding to question from Urhobotoday on why he looks more like photo-journalist than a reporter.
Meeting Odita for the first time with his camera dangling on his neck, coupled with his dexterity to snap action shots during investigating of breaking news, one wonders if he is a photographer or journalist.
Odita belonged to both categories. He is a trained journalist with passion for photography. He did not go into photography by accident. He fell in love with the profession from his youthful days as a student of Mass Communication in Auchi Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State, where he bagged Higher National Diploma (HND). Odita developed the passion for photography because most of the courses he studied involved photo-journalism.
When he, however, came into full stream journalism with Guardian newspapers after graduation from school, Odita, known as a crack crime investigator and reporter dumped the camera and concentrated only on reporting and writing of news stories. After several years of dropping the camera, Odita discovered that something was missing.The missing thing was his love for the camera.
“After some years of dropping my camera, I discovered that I am not a complete journalist without a camera. It was then I went back to my camera,” Odita who hailed from Onicha-Ugbo , Aniocha North Local Government Area of Delta State recalled, stressing that a twenty century journalist must back his copy with a good photograph that tells the story.
Odita, who is married with two children did not only go back to his camera based on the knowledge he acquired as a student of Mass Communication, he went further to accumulate more knowledge in photography by enrolling in Matson Photography Academy, Lekki, Lagos, where he recently bagged a certificate in Advance Photography and Photo-journalism to qualify him as a professional photo-journalist.
According to him, “In order to have a full knowledge of photo-journalism, I took a refresher course in photography and photo-journalism in Mattson Photography Academy located at Lekki, Lagos, where I learnt the art of photography from the Masters themselves. To be a complete journalist you must have full knowledge of photography. It did not mean that you must use expensive camera. You can snap with your Black Berry. You are a photographer. A pure journalist must equip himself with midget recorder, pen and camera.