Everyday Nigeria — Not Idealized, Not Debased

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Helon Habila grew up in northern Nigeria and has written vividly about it, most recently in “Oil on Water,” a novel that explores the oil industry’s effects on the Niger Delta. A former newspaper editor as well, he now lives in Virginia and teaches at George Mason University.

But when Mr. Habila looks at American newspapers, magazines or Web sites, the photos he sees give at best only a partial view of the Nigeria he knows. Most photographers come to the country either to show poverty or political violence, he said, with “predetermination about what they want” to find.

When he was approached to help choose and comment on smartphone photos of ordinary life in Nigeria for the Instagram feed “Everyday Africa,” he reacted enthusiastically, since the photos evoked many memories.

“They showed people just being people, without the intention, without the politics, without the biases â€" whether it’s positive bias or negative bias,” he said.

“It’s just people as they are, and I think that’s the way people should be seen, wherever they come from. Not idealized, not debased, but just people.”

He picked 50 images from 200 photos taken by Jide Alakija, Andrew Esiebo, Glenna Gordon and Jane Hahn and wrote brief, often humorous captions. Five images are being posted daily on the Instagram feed through Sept. 25.

Glenna Gordon Helon Habila: Chopping Nigeria. Glenna Gordon: Chinese businessmen serve wine during dinner at a restaurant in Kano. April 10.

Everyday Africa was started by the photographer Peter DiCampo and the writer Austin Merrill, both of whom had worked extensively in Africa and were looking for ways to get beyond the stereotypical narratives of war, famine and wildlife.

They found that the casual observations and mundane activities that they captured with smartphones while living and working in Africa, allowed them to communicate a fuller view of the continent. Their images included the middle class, the wealthy, students and artists. Their early efforts were featured on Lens last year.

Soon, 14 photographers were posting images on the feed, including Mr. Merrill (who, it turns out, is a pretty fine photographer for a writer and editor).

Now Mr. DiCampo and Mr. Merrill are exploring other ways to use their image archive to project a deeper view of Africans. Mr. Merrill, who is also the legal affairs editor at Vanity Fair, says that they plan to use the Everyday Africa photos to help American high school students to learn more about the continent and also to use images to tell stories about their own lives. A pilot program is scheduled for next year at the Bronx Documentary Center in New York.

Mr. Habila says the images he edited have an appealing innocence that comes partially from the vernacular visual language of iPhone photography and Instagram.

“These photos bring back all the aspects of life in that country in its entirety,” he said. “It presents Nigeria in so many different ways, so there’s a kind of truth about it, an authenticity.”

Jane Hahn Helon Habila: We the souchefs! Great shot. Jane Hahn: Employees of the hamburger chain Johnny Rockets, in Lagos, take a break. Feb. 20.

Follow @EverydayAfrica on Instagram and Twitter. @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto are also on Twitter, and you can follow Lens on Facebook.