Community builds culture—here’s how | Taiye Omokore | TEDxBute Street

Taiye Omokore explores how community shapes identity, culture, and belonging — from his childhood in Nigeria to his life in Wales. Through stories of sport, migration, loneliness, and creativity, he reveals how community is built intentionally through presence, storytelling, and shared humanity. His work as a photographer and founder of KLAT Magazine shows how representation becomes memory, and how new cultures emerge when people meet without fear. Taiye Omokore is a Nigerian-born visual artist, photographer, creative director, and cultural entrepreneur based in London and Cardiff. His work explores identity, migration, resilience, and representation, using fashion and portrait photography as tools to tell deeply human stories that bridge his Nigerian heritage with his lived experience in Wales. Since relocating to the UK in 2022, Taiye has quickly built an internationally recognised body of work. His photography has been featured in publications including Vogue, BBC, Art Uk, Dazed, Aesthetica, and Cardiff Life Magazine, and exhibited at leading institutions such as Somerset House in London as part of the Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, Ffotogallery, and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. In 2023, he was named Visual Artist of the Year at the Black History Wales Awards, recognising both his artistic excellence and his social impact. His projects often focus on identity, belonging, and cultural memory. Series like Into the Unknown explored the emotional realities of migration and was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards, while My Jeans, My Everyday was selected for PhotoVogue’s global exhibition celebrating Levi’s 150th anniversary, where he was one of 150 artists chosen worldwide and the only representative from Wales. Beyond photography, Taiye is the founder and creative director of KLAT Magazine and the KLAT Awards, platforms dedicated to spotlighting emerging creatives and underrepresented voices. Through interviews, photography, and events, he has documented and platformed over 200 young creatives across Wales and internationally, building a community that celebrates new talent and cultural storytelling. His wider creative practice spans film, exhibitions, and cultural projects. He has directed documentary work supported by the BFI, collaborated with national institutions including the National Library of Wales and the Football Association of Wales, and was endorsed by Arts Council England as a Global Talent visual artist. His debut photography book, My Story in Red, explores identity, heritage, and self-expression across Nigeria and Wales through deeply personal visual narratives. Through every platform he builds and every story he captures, Taiye’s mission remains consistent: to expand representation, preserve cultural memory, and create spaces where emerging voices can be seen, heard, and celebrated. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx