THISDAYonline

Just the other day someone went on the internet, specifically the Yahoo website personalities search and typed the name, 'Sunmi Smart-Cole.' What seemed like a joke at first turned out to be something else as Yahoo! coughed up six web pages on the man who is referred to as: 'Nigerian photographer, Jazz drummer, draughts man and barber'. It would seem that some of his talents have caught the eyes of the world. And just as well too, because his works have become, for many, an enduring legacy, even while he lives.

Born September 25, 1941 in Port Harcourt, Smart-Cole is an artist through and through, with an ardent commitment to nature, sensitivity toward music and a penchant for fashion. All of these, including his work as a newspaper man, have done a lot in building his profile in photography, for which, more than anything else, he is mostly known.

Said to be mostly self taught, Cole was an elementary teacher at age 15. At 17, he started training as an architectural draughts man, and subsequently designed, among others, the country home of former Sierra Leonean Prime Minister, Sir Albert Margai.

As a jazz percussionist in the 1960s, he was a founding member of the Soul Assembly. Sunmi has performed or "sat-in" with well-known jazz musicians such as the late Julian Adderley, Jimmy Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Yusef Lateef and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. He put forth the first Nigerian jazz festival in 1964 at King's College Hall, Lagos.

Back in '67 he owned a barber shop, Sunmi's Place, which was well-known among the elite in Lagos.

Smart-Cole moved to the United States of America in 1972, and worked as an electronic drafter and technical illustrator. His inclination towards the picturesque made him take a photography course at Foothill College in Los Altos, California.

On his return to Nigeria in 1982, he went on and became the first photo editor of the then newly established Guardian Newspaper and was later appointed Managing Editor of the paper in 1988.

In recognition of his contribution to the development of photo-journalism in Nigeria and the encouragement of aspiring young photographers, Smart-Cole was presented with the Nigerian Institute of Journalism Students' Union Award. He however resigned from The Guardian in 1989 in a bid to return to full-time photography and in 1990, opened the Sunmi Smart-Cole Gallery of Photography in Yaba, Lagos.

On August 27, 1985, Smart-Cole took one of the most famous picturess of his career: that of the then head of state, General Ibrahim Babangida, who'd just taken over power, as he waved and entered his car. Although there were many journalists there, the image that was seen all over the world of the first glimpse of IBB, was Smart-Cole's.

He has held 23 exhibitions to date. His first book, The Photography of Sunmi Smart-Cole, with a foreword by Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka was published by Bookcraft Ltd. Ibadan in collaboration with Daily Times of Nigeria, in 1990. His second book, A Pictorial View: The Foreign Policy Landmarks of the Babangida Administration, was published in 1993.

Sunmi Smart-Cole, who turned 61 yesterday has however, not completely lost touch with his newspaper links. He's is currently a contributing editor with THISDAY.