Nigeria's first and only international festival of photography, LagosPhoto, kicked off this past weekend in Victoria Island featuring the work of forty local and international artists from over twenty countries. For the fifth year in a row, the series welcomes the work of photographers who offer an alternative to what festival founder Azu Nwagboguonce identified as the dominant "Afro-Pessimistic" narrative of suffering and abject poverty usually portrayed in Western media. This year's theme is Staging Reality: Documenting Fiction, which according to LagosPhoto, "examines contemporary photographers working in Africa that toe the line between photography and truth, incorporating conceptual practices and performative strategies that expand traditional photographic approaches and techniques."

Among the artists featured are Moroccan pop-art photographer Hassan Hajjaj, British-Nigerian artist/curator Sesu Tilley-Gyado, whose digitally enhanced TIME magazine covers capture the multiplicity of African identities within a historical context, South African sculptor Mary Sibande and Nigerian photographer Jenevieve Aken, who both use their likeness to probe outmoded gender roles and the position of the black female body in Africa, and Zimbabwean multi-media artist Kudzanai Chiurai and his socio-political exploration of nation states through video, sound and performance. In the gallery above, we compiled ten of the most striking images now on display at the monthlong festival. Keep up with LagosPhoto on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and check out their official website for more information on presentations, workshops, and film screenings rounding out the exhibition.

LagosPhoto Festival runs from October 25th to November 26th in Lagos, Nigeria.