Bronx photographer explores themes from Nigeria to New York

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - As the sun sets on the Bronx, the stories, in a way, tell themselves around here. There are so many. This one is the story of a young man who turns to the arts in the face of difficulty.

I'm here to connect with Osaretin Ugiagbe, a Nigerian-born photographer and painter, and to learn more about his story and his exhibit called "Unbelonging" at the Bronx Documentary Center.

Osaretin was born in Nigeria in 1986 and moved to the Bronx in 2002. He has studied fine art and exhibited his paintings, which have strongly influenced his black-and-white street photography. Much of his work focuses on the themes of displacement, identity, and belonging.

Stories like these hover above the tension. Dreams pursued collide with those deferred. In part, it is what makes this place special and home.

In "Unbelonging," the photos document the beauty and sorrows witnessed during a life split between the surging Bronx streets and the half-built flyovers of Lagos, Nigeria.