Jenevieve Aken

Jenevieve Aken

Nigerian photographer

Award-winning Nigerian photographer and storyteller, Jenevieve Aken uses social documentary photography and self-portraits to explore a variety of social issues through her own personal experiences.

Jenevieve recently won the Wellcome Photography Prize in the Hidden Worlds category for her 2017 project Monankim. The word Monankim comes from the Nigerian Bakor people and refers to the process of female circumcision that takes place during puberty. Jenevieve interviewed young women from these communities about their expectations leading up to the process and explores her own conflicted opinions on the practice, personally being from the minority Bakor tribes.

During 2020 Jenevieve has worked on Dress Code, a series of self-portraits inspired by the outbreak of Covid-19 and social responses to the pandemic. Dress Code is currently being featured in the Hundred Heroine’s online Cabinet of Remedies exhibition.