Art Inspired By The Ingenuity Of Nigerian Street Vendors

When photographer Lorenzo Vitturi first visited Lagos, in 2014, he expected to find the same sort of gentrification he'd seen happening around him in London, where he's based. He imagined he'd find colorful neighborhoods being dismantled, razed and replaced with sterile skyscrapers. He anticipated chain stores and shopping malls where there were once mom-and-pop shops.

And for the most part, his instincts were right. In Africa's most populous, fastest-growing city, mass evictions have become almost commonplace.

But on Lagos Island, one of the oldest parts of the city, Vitturi was delighted to discover what he calls "reverse gentrification." Connected to the mainland by bridges, the island is the overcrowded home to the local government as well as the sprawling Balogun street market, where vendors hawk plastic furniture, cleaning products, bed linens, baskets, lipsticks