ManLikeMike

“If you shoot for the stars, you’ll at least land on the moon” We catch up with V&A Creative Resident for Photography Michael Akuagwu ( @_manlikemike ) ahead of his final display at V&A South Kensington. Throughout his 2025 residency, Michael has pushed beyond his comfort zone, exploring new creative formats and processes as he questions how ‘significance’ in art is defined. ‘Through The Lens’ is an approach to rebalance representation in museums – celebrating overlooked Black British Photographers that came before and highlighting the importance of inter-generational connections. Come and discover Michael’s display alongside works from our other 2025 Adobe Creative Residents, at V&A South Kensington until 1 November 2026. Film by @james__hough Additional footage @zuketafilms The Adobe Creative Residency is supported by The Adobe Foundation.

“I am good enough. I’m here for a reason.” Adobe Creative Resident Michael Akuagwu is diving into one of his biggest projects yet. ‘Through the Lens’ brings together intergenerational conversations between black British photographers - and while interviewing your peers can be exciting, feelings of imposter syndrome can creep in.  Michael opens up about how he stays focused and inspired while working on big projects, and reminds us why self-care matters. Sometimes you need to step back, recharge, and reconnect with yourself so you can come back feeling refreshed and ready to create. The Adobe Creative Residency is supported by The Adobe Foundation. Film by @james__hough Additional footage @zuketafilms

Enter the surreal with 2025 Adobe Creative Resident Michael Akuagwu, whose dreamlike self-portraits and digitally sculpted worlds explore identity, memory, and culture today. Drawing inspiration from iconic works by Vanley Burke such as “Young Men on See-Saw, Handsworth Park, Birmingham” to the quietly powerful “Boy With Flag, Wilfred, in Handsworth Park”, Michael’s combination of surreal self-portraiture and personal narrative invites us to witness a new kind of portrait - one that challenges, remembers, and transforms. Film by @james__hough Supported by The Adobe Foundation.

We’re back at the @vamuseum 🎉 Drop in on to see us working live, solving randomly generated briefs inspired by the V&A collection and on Saturday 23rd May you can join us to do the same! Think our 30 day challenges, but IRL. Drop in to see how we get on from Thu 21 – Fri 22 and you can join in on Sat 23 May, free. Secure your spot via the link in bio 🎟️ we can’t wait to see you there!

Under The Bushel (2026) Part of an upcoming body of work ‘Something About The Light’.

Little pleasures, reflections and moments that made an odd time a bit better ❤️😂

THE 2025 ADOBE CREATIVE RESIDENTS 13/01/2025 - 31/12/2025 A year today Ciara, Jess and I started the craziest journey at the V&A. A lot of new things we all explored. A bit of a crazy everything, everywhere, all at once. I couldn’t have wished for a better group of artists to explore all of last year with. Here’s a lil carousel of some interesting disposable film pics, other film pics, Mia’s phone pics 😂🫶🏾, other phone pics of some of our year. We came, we saw, we researched, we WORKED, we actually made amazing pieces for our show (we actually did it 😭) and most importantly we conquered! Also shout out to our US cousin @samorapinderhughes and congratulations on an amazing year with the residency programme at MoMA 🥳🥳🥳 Wishing you all the best with your next steps (but first hope you both get a lot of good rest), the work you both make is incredible and you’re all incredible. The sky is truly the limit. Till next time! ❤️

Sometimes I think wow I really had an installation at @wirelessfest …..mad 😂 Here’s a compilation of some of the cool things I worked on with the Young People team at @vamuseum last year. I have a small backlog so trying to package bits to share it here. From workshops and Experiments with Image led by @chiizii and @alexander_ikhide (thanks so much to you both) to photographing the INWRDS 2025 collective led by @tristanfaiduenu and @yomi_sode and creating a zine of poems and pictures taken of their amazing performance inspired by the Hair in The Cable installation by Mimi Ọnụọha. There were so many beautiful moments and some highlights were definitely working the A Moment in Time photography group and My World in My Eyes with @198_cal , it has such a pleasure being able to collaborate with you all. The work 198 does for the community is so important so thank you for allowing us to work on something really special together. I got to do a photography course with my friend, @kentekwame it was an absolute blast working with you on this. Thanks to @___fits___ , Jasprit, Wen, Catherine and Dhiyandra for making A Moment in Time happen. That was lightning in a bottle. And the group, you guys are too cold. Thanks to @bcaheritage , @wynservices @teedilla71 and @weareparable for a great collab at Make and Meet! Also thanks to @polabooth.co.uk and @andrekongstudio for making Pass The Aux installation come to life. My first time ever doing an installation so thank you guys for being amazing collaborators. Also @catherinenicholson90 you really made THAT happen 😭❤️. A huge shout out to Kat, Catherine and Alistair from the Young People team. I’ve learnt so much from all of you last year. You do such incredible and impactful work at the museum. Will miss working with you all, the quick catch ups in passing and just watching you guys do your thing. Also could not have done this without the producers from the Learning department and LEAs so thanks so much everyone. Shout out to the photographers for the pics! Hydar Dewachi (Slide 4, 20) Jasprit Singh (Slides 15, 16) @sandra_ebert (Slide 14) David Parry (Slides 1,2) @joyzaharabina (Slide 19)

Celebrate the Adobe Creative Residents at the V&A ✨ Swipe to explore the journeys, inspirations, and communities behind the work of @ciara.neufeldt , @_manlikemike , and @jess_starns on display at @vamuseum

Our show “Adobe Creative Residents on Display” is out now (till November 2026). Shout out to the gang @ciara.neufeldt & @jess_starns . We did it 🥹❤️ Wow. Thank you to the designers who were part of Reference Point: @nataliiee_n , @bernsjnr , @kentekwame , @chezza.2.0 , @tunjinius , @eugeneekuban & @obehiejele for sharing your stories and references with us. It’s been beautiful being in community with you guys. To the photographers @ajamustudios @alexander_ikhide @eileen_perrier_projects @karisbeau @___fits___ @jenniebaptiste @teedilla71 @dbcxptures @eddie_otchere & @aliyahotchere thank you for your openness, trust, wisdom and lessons through your stories. Through The Lens wouldn’t have happened without you all. The art you’ve all created has impacted my journey as an artist in such profound ways. I still think it’s wild you all agreed to this, thank you. Thank you to @siglassss @james__hough for creating Through The Lens with me. I’ve learnt so much from you both. You’ve been an incredible collaborators. @jaspritsingh81 and @theoriginalweirdone thank you for the ways you helped a brother out on not just this project but many others. @isaac_hux and Lydia, thank you for your TIME. I’ve enjoyed learning about photography from you both. Lydia thank you for seeing value in my ideas. @miaharrisgaffa thank you for how you’ve kept all these ideas moving along, never seeing an idea as too crazy, for encouragement and structure! @theloniousfunkmonk & @dhi.yandra This would NOT have happened without that one pivotal conversation in the stu so thank you both so much, and for holding space ❤️🫂 @simon_dodi our catch ups gave me safety, joy and a lot of ideas to ponder on. Thank you! Yasmin and Su Lin….none of my work would be here without you both. The real MVPs. Thank you. Justine and Mel you’ve curated an amazing show. Thank you so so much. The Residencies and Learning Team? The whole department needs an award. THE BEST ❤️ Thank you to my people. This has been a very intense year and a such big project. Grateful for the ways you’ve held me up. Enjoy! 📸 Peter Kelleher © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 2025.

If anyone’s free for a lunchtime lecture on the 4th December, I’ll be sharing my journey during this residency programme and discussing some of the work I’ve made this year. Touching on my initial focus and plans, research and how my ideas developed, programmes we’ve worked on and then sharing the work that will be displayed for our upcoming show that will be available from the 2nd of December - Nov 2026 at the V&A. 📍V&A Museum > Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre

🚨 9TH DECEMBER | 7:00 PM 🚨 We’ll have a double screening and Q&A of films I’ve worked on during the Adobe Creative Residency at the V&A, Reference Point and Through The Lens. Hosted by Hannah John (@wynservices ) and in partnership with @bcaheritage over at the Ritzy in Brixton! During my residency I’ve been thinking a lot about the references we have when we start as artists, especially black artists, which has fed into a lot of research and programming I’ve been doing at the V&A. My research, my career journey (from engineering to design to photography and art) and many conversations with a lot of people in and out of the museum have been big inspirations for the work I’ve created this year. 

Reference Point Who shapes the canons of art and design history, and who gets left out? How does this impact future generations of graphic designers. ‘Reference Point’ explores these questions through the voices of Black designers from the diaspora sharing their stories of their influences as they’ve navigated their career paths. 
 Through the Lens

Through The Lens aims to address what Sonia Boyce describes as “mass systemic amnesia” , through a series of intergenerational conversations between Black British photographers. With early/mid career photographers talking with those decades into their practice the series gives space to share journeys into craft, similarities and differences in process and references as well as reflections and celebration of our history and culture. A short cut of all the conversations will be shared at the event. For tickets please email [email protected] with names of guests. Can’t wait to see you there. Tell a friend to tell a friend. *These films will also be a part of my works for our group show, Adobe Creative Residents on Display, from the 2nd December till November 2026 at the V&A South Kensington.* Thanks to my crew, the residencies team for making this all happen and to @vamuseum & @adobe / @adobeuk