Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström
Sweden
Biography
Lola Akinmade Åkerström (US citizen/permanent resident) is an award-winning visual storyteller, international bestselling author, and travel entrepreneur. She has dispatched from over 80+ countries and her work has been featured in National Geographic, New York Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, Travel Channel, Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, Forbes, and many more. She has collaborated with commercial brands such as Dove, Getty Images, Mercedes Benz, Intrepid Travel, Electrolux, ASUS, and National Geographic Channel, to name a few.
As a storyteller, Lola was featured on Condé Nast Traveler's Women Who Travel Power List. She was named one of the Most Influential Women in Travel by Travel Pulse, a Hasselblad Heroine and Bill Muster Travel Photographer of the Year. She was also honoured with a MIPAD 100 (Most Influential People of African Descent) Award within media and culture and a Newsweek Future of Travel Storytelling Award.
Project
“ÅFRÖSWÈ̩DÉ̩ – A Visual Celebration of Both” by Lọlá Ákínmádé Åkerström is a photographic project that celebrates the integration and blending of cultural identities — particularly the experience of people in Sweden who carry African heritage alongside their Swedish identity. Rather than depicting assimilation as giving up one side of the self, the series visualises what it feels like to embrace all facets of identity at once, using portraiture backed by blue and yellow backgrounds and design accents that evoke the Swedish flag while combining African- and Swedish-inspired attire and accessories.
The work aims to photograph people proudly expressing their full, multifaceted identities — whether they were born in Sweden or moved there — and to affirm how cultural blending can be a source of joy, visibility and belonging.
