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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Saeed Kamali Dehghan

‘In Nigeria, a tyre never quite dies’: reinventing the wheel in Lagos

A muscular bare-chested young man seen from behind in this black and white photo almost seems to blend into the pile of tyres he is standing on as he lifts them out
A worker sorts old tyres at a site in the Mile 12 area of Lagos. The ‘Pneuma-City’ photography project explores the many ways tyres are reused in the city. Photograph: Andrew Esiebo

The work of a vulcaniser is not unlike that of a surgeon, says the Nigerian photographer Andrew Esiebo. Armed with precision tools, vulcanisers across Nigeria extend the lives of tyres otherwise destined for the scrap heap.

“Vulcanisers are like doctors for tyres because the way they work is like surgery,” says Esiebo, who has chronicled how used tyres are being repurposed in Lagos in a photography series exhibited as part of the British Academy-funded Pneuma-City project.

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