Courtesy Fati Abubakar
A Kwayam girl in the Dalori nomadic community. Northern Nigeria has become synonymous with car bombings, kidnappings and forced child marriages in the wake of Boko Haram. Born and raised in Maiduguri, 30-year-old Fati Abubakar has been capturing residents living under the Islamic militants shadow. Her Instagram account @bitsofborno aims to document everyday life in Borno State, an area known for frequent Boko Haram attacks. While acknowledging the fear and violence that Boko Haram has caused, her images focus on hope and resilience.
Courtesy Fati Abubakar
A vintage 1962 Rolls Royce in the Emir of Kano's fleet. Emirs are rulers of the Fulani region. "A lot of my work has been finding beauty in unusual places," she told CNN. "I always strive to show that beauty is everywhere and that Africa and Africans are beautiful resilient people who thrive anywhere."
Courtesy Fati Abubakar
A girl at Kayace, Abuja. Her new series Faces, are portrait shots of people living in and around her community. There are now 2.2 million internally displaced Nigerians as a result of Boko Haram with Maiduguri having doubled in size from the influx of displaced people.
"With this series," says Abubakar. "It is a collection of people who are to me, living in abject poverty but thrive, and still live despite everything around them."
Courtesy Ishola Akpo
Close up of a Yoruba woman wearing garments given as part of her marriage dowry. Akpo's intimate photographs of his grandmother reflect on the ancestral dowry among Yoruba people living in the Republic of Benin and Nigeria. Born in the Yopougon, Ivory Coast, the 33-year-old currently lives and works in Cotonou, Republic of Benin.
Courtesy Ishola Akpo
"The [series] essential is invisible to the eyes explores the marriage dowry and the memory of my grandmother through the remaining objects of her dowry," Akpo told CNN. The photographer is interested in how the dowry has changed over time, especially through the changing status of women in the region. It's about "what could be the dowry of the future", he says.
Courtesy Ishola Akpo
As part of the 2013 Urban Connections program at the French Institute in Paris, Akpo looked at street food venues within Porto Novo, the administrative capital of the Republic of Benin.
Courtesy Ishola Akpo
"Photography" he says, has been a way to "explore, to see the world."
Courtesy Muchiri Njenga
Afrocyberpunk by Njenga. 31-year-old visual artist and filmmaker Muchiri Njenga is the founder of Studio Ang, a Nairobi-based art collective, creating adverts for some of the world's biggest companies including Google, Visa and Guinness. In this image, his sci-fi character KIII treks across a burned-out factory landscape.
Courtesy Muchiri Njenga
Run KT run by Njenga. Many of Njenga's short films feature a young boy with a TV as a head, a commentary on media and its effects on young people. In KIII the Kenyan born visual artist questions, "What happens when futuristic technologies meet magical realism under an African sun?"
Courtesy Lakin Ogunbanwo
Photograph from a series titled, Are You Ok? Ogunbanwo's lens often focuses on West Africa's high-end fashion industry. His series on men's hats in Nigeria was featured in Vogue earlier this year. The images pictured here push the country's conventional views on taste and decency by photographing Nigerians dressed in traditional garments but combined with fetish wear.
Courtesy Lakin Ogunbanwo
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, 29-year-old Ogunbanwo's wants to explore modern ideas considered "to be at odds with African culture," he writes in his statement for LagosPhoto. The erotic undertones, he insists, "isn't for these elements to look jarring together but for the combination to come off as regular... because in reality it is."
Courtesy Keyezua
A young woman wears handmade clothes woven from raw materials using traditional basket weaving techniques. The images by Keyezua question how developed Angolan design is today? It's about "inviting the viewers to think further than African prints as identity" writes Keyezua, as these "are often produced in Europe by European designers and sold to Africans."
Courtesy Keyezua
"Old Angolan weave masters" she writes, "were never challenged to reconstruct and revive traditional crafts made with materials found and further developed in Angola." The Angolan born artist is known for her previous work -- a series of digitally collaged women -- created in support of Artists Against FGM.
Courtesy Mario Macilau
As more on the continent become digitally connected, problems arise on how to effectively dispose electronic waste. Born in Maputo, Mozambique, Mario Macilau's images show the four-year-old Maputo Municipal open pit dumpsite.
"You can find a group of more than two thousand people who make a living out of the e-waste," writes Macilau in a statement to LagosPhoto. "Either by separating and selling recyclable goods such as TVs, computers, tablets and [cellphones] or by living out of whatever they find to be useable."
Courtesy Mario Macilau
A boy plays behind a discarded TV frame. Electronic waste is burned at the site, explains Macilau, releasing hazardous chemicals into the environment.
Courtesy Tsoku Maela
The highly conceptual 'Broken things' series aims to tell a visual story on two flawed characters that eventually lean to embrace their imperfections. The Cape Town based photographer has also been documenting his depression through, Abstract Pieces, a tumblr he set up, to create a visual story around mental illness in black communities.

Story highlights

The sixth edition of LagosPhoto festival starts this month and 30 photographers across 17 countries are set to showcase.

Our curated gallery shows the artists to watch.

LagosPhoto is the only international festival of photography in the country

CNN  — 
Gareth Pon/Instagram
As social media usage grows on the continent, Gareth Pon, voted Africa's best Instagrammer at the African Blogger Awards 2015, shows the world his Africa, including this image taken in Braamfontein, Johanesburg, South Africa.
Gareth Pon/Instagram
He shoots his favorite places in his home town of Johannesburg and beyond, jumping from cityscapes to portraits.
Gareth Pon/Instagram
Pon often uses his large following to champion other creatives, for in example in this shot, taken on the set of UK pop artist Ozonna's music video.
Gareth Pon/Instagram
As quirky and modern as his work is, Pon isn't scared of posting a traditional sunset or two. This one was taken at Mabalingwe Game Reserve, Rooiberg, South Africa.
Gareth Pon/Instagram
In Jeppestown, Maboneng Princict, South Africa, Pon catches anonymous artist Above as he finishes painting his biggest wall to date.
Gareth Pon/Instagram
Pon captures a piece of art by Keri Muller called "Africa Re-Invented" in Maboneng, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Gareth Pon/Instagram
Pon has friends in artistic places, including Nelson Makamo who he describes as; "One of the most humble and amazing South African artists I've ever met. He has a heart of a gold and a deep insight into life, and with that comes many inspiring moments and great conversations."
Gareth Pon/Instagram
Visiting Obesa Nursey in Graaff-Reinet, South Africa, Pon snaps his friend Zuko among the cacti.
Gareth Pon/Instagram
In Soweto, Gauteng, Pon spots some excited children, posting this image with the caption; "Stoked. Kids in #Soweto are stoked. Like really stoked."

For a long time, Africa has been in front of the lens, but very rarely behind it.

As young Africans establish their creative voices, a crop of festivals and biennales are springing up across the continent looking to share resident’s stories, from their own perspectives.

One of the longest running has hit Nigeria’s most populous city once again – LagosPhoto festival.

Returning for its sixth year, 2016 looks set to be its most defining, with large-scale outdoor installations taking place around Lagos’ congested roads.

Hip hop photographer, Jonathan Mannion will roll into town armed with his back catalogue of iconic images stretching back two decades. Mannion has shot over 300 album covers for the likes of Jay Z, Lil Wayne and Drake. He’s expected to hold workshops and talks on his experiences at the festival.

Courtesy Colin Defosse
Documentary photographer Colin Delfosse's images of Congolese wrestlers in the capital Kinshasa.

As the first and so far, the only international festival of photography in the country, 30 photographers across 17 countries will descend onto Lagos.

Participating artists include Nigerian Fati Abubakar capturing life in the shadow of Boko Haram, Ishola Akpo from the Republic of Benin looking at marriage rites and rituals and Muchiri Njenga delivering Kenyan sci-fi in the form of afro-futurism.

Courtesy Harness Hamese
Whether it's Kenya's jet setting grannies or Johannesburg's street style battles - Africans have long found their voice in knowing how to dress sharp - as Brighton Photo Biennial's latest exhibition explores.
Courtesy Sara Shamsavari
The Dandy Lion Project looks at African and diasporans who dress provocatively as dandies.
Courtesy Daniele Tamagni
"When I first started curating the exhibition I was really anti including any artists who are not of African descent. So I really wanted to look at dressing up not as a response to racism and discrimination but as a source of pride," says curator Shantrelle Lewis.
Courtesy Daniele Tamagni
The exhibition will showcase around 150 images taken by more than 30 photographers over the past 10 years.
Courtesy Harness Hamese
Amongst them is budding South African photographer Harness Hamese.
Courtesy Harness Hamese
He started photographing South Africa's street styles after meeting with a group of dandy enthusiasts named Khumbula (a Nguni word that means "remember").
Courtesy Harness Hamese
The nostalgic group, like to dress up in vintage, to represent a time in South African history where their parents dressed up as an expression of independence during apartheid.
Courtesy Harness Hamese
"We started Khumbula because we felt African stories are not told the way they should be told, the interpreters of our stories tell them the way their audience would like to receive them," say the group.
Courtesy Harness Hamese
"It sort of communicates the mindset that even in oppression we can still dress up and look good and be determined as a people to represent ourselves in an appropriate level," says Hamese.
Courtesy Harness Hamese
"I don't want people to look at my photographs as part of the Dandy Lion project and only look at the clothes but the stories that come with the clothes," says Hamese.
Courtesy Harness Hamese
It's about storytelling insists Hamese, "It's not only about the clothes because I don't photograph clothes I photograph people."

There are international photographers exhibiting as well, including Spain’s Pep Bonnet shooting Botswana’s eyebrow raising black punk scene and Brazilian photographer Bruno Morais striking photos of the colorful garments worn by African women. Colin Defosse’s surreal images (pictured above) of Congolese wrestlers charming their public prove arresting.

See the emerging African photographers to keep a close eye on, from our gallery above.

LagosPhoto 2016 runs until 21 November across Lagos, Nigeria