Archives from Seasons Shoot, 2024 — With Josie.
These are fragments from a time of becoming : echoes, not conclusions. What I am reaching for has not yet been created, not yet fully born. It lingers just beyond the frame, waiting for its appointed moment.
I have seen glimpses of it, something more poetic, more grounded, more biblical in its language but it is still forming, still unfolding in quiet.
So these remain archives… not the arrival, but the evidence that something is on its way.
Creative direction by me
Muse & Styled by @josi_germann
Stay close. The vision is coming into its own time.
#shotbydavidsanya
A Cultural Investigation into Yoruba Decadence (Òwàmbẹ): Through the Eye of the Sublime
The city becomes my canvas, alive with rhythm, color, and memory.
In its heartbeat, Òwàmbẹ rises not as excess, but as communion. It is the pulse of a people who remember, who adorn themselves in the language of beauty and defiance. Here, fabric speaks. Drums converse. Laughter becomes ceremony.
Through my lens, Yoruba decadence transforms into testimony. An archive of survival, joy, and identity. Each gesture, each color, each motion is a return: to heritage, to story, to self.
Òwàmbẹ is more than celebration; it is a philosophy of being. A resistance against erasure. A reminder that we have always known how to make beauty from struggle, and communion from distance.
To those scattered across oceans and borders, this is your call home.
Come home through memory, through music, through the shimmer of Ankara in motion. Come home to the rhythm that raised you, even if you have never danced to it before.
The sublime lives here, in the embrace of a people who refuse to forget themselves.
Òwàmbẹ is not just a party. It is a return.
Photographer: @davidsanyaa
Stylist: @officialswazzi@stylingstarswithswazzi
Models: @likiba_@manlikearaga@iyoonuoluwa.raji
Producer: @big_mossad
The Orientalist , 2024
Threads of time, woven into color and pattern—oriental carpets and rugs carry the whispers of distant lands. Each knot is a memory, each motif a fragment of history, unfurling stories across centuries.
Spread beneath quiet footsteps or sunlight through a window, they are more than fabric; they are echoes of journeys, artistry, and heritage silent witnesses to beauty that never fades.
Photographer @davidsanyaa
Designer - @ldmclo_ng
Stylist - Okolo Obiechina Swazzi @stylingstarswithswazzi
Model - @mrugandanschnack
Film - @5ive.yk
Open Waters
A project bringing 3 photographers (@Davidsanyaa@jadereyphotos@aichathomas ) as a collective to fashion ideas arising from the narrative of otherness and black masculinity with its relationship between British landscapes in black history.
We appreciate everyone that supported the vision.
Producer - Rubee Samuels @rubeesamuel
Film 🎥 - 5ive @5ive.yk
Jovan Stennett @theeonlyjov
Talent -
Gabriel Z @gabriiel.qa
Faith Johnson @faith__johnson
Styling
Ami Mcintosh @amiivonslaughter
hair stylist -
Lauraine Bailey @laurainebailey
makeup artist -
Sam @lovesamantics
#shotbydavidsanya
