“Nowadays, I literally open VSCO everyday, share my photos, see other creatives' photos and get inspired.”
Abduljalil Attahir describes his photography as “multifaceted.” Fine art, lifestyle, street, and documentary, all at once, all intentional. Six years in, based in Nigeria, he moves between genres the way some photographers move between lenses: fluidly, with a clear sense of what each one gives him.
He opens VSCO every day. Not to post and check metrics, but to see what other photographers are making, and to avoid the kind of algorithm-driven platforms where photography gets buried under everything else. For him, VSCO is what social media for photographers should be: images first, everything else second.
VSCO Prompts fit into his process naturally. In this conversation, Abduljalil talks through how he uses them not just to submit work he's already made, but as a direct challenge to go create something new when he doesn't have anything that fits.
1. How would you describe your photography?
I like to describe my photography as a “multifaceted photography” because I am interested in a couple of niches and put my energy in them all at once. Mainly fine art, lifestyle, street, and documentary photography.
I use photography as an expressive medium to show the world how I view moments or subjects at a particular place, at a given time. I identify as a professional photographer; this is my sixth year in photography.
2. How do prompts fit into how you use VSCO day to day?
I mostly find out about prompts through the Discover tab in the VSCO app. I love the sense of community VSCO is promoting and its innovations to make photographer workflows easier.
Nowadays, I literally open VSCO every day, share my photos, see other creatives' photos, and get inspired. I also go there to avoid “algorithm-driven social media.”
VSCO is all about the photography and sharing images as it should be.
3. How do you decide a prompt is interesting to submit to?
As a photographer who photographs different niches, mostly, when I see a prompt and remember I have taken some similar shots on a previous day, that motivates me to submit.
Sometimes I don't even have pictures to submit for a prompt, but seeing it on VSCO, I take it as a challenge on myself to go out and create those sort of images.
“Sometimes I don't even have pictures to submit for a prompt, but seeing it on VSCO, I take it as a challenge on myself to go out and create those sort of images.”
4. What are two of your all time favorite prompts, and why?
I really enjoyed #MyStudio and #FaceToFace.
#MyStudio showed behind the scenes of photographers creating images. When you see the BTS of a photoshoot, you appreciate the effort and give more credit to the photographer and creative director. #MyStudio literally invited everyone into a photographer's space, and also reminded us of the need to take photos of ourselves on set. Photographers should document themselves; keep the memories!
I do a lot of portraits, and #FaceToFace showed me a lot of angles I hadn't tried before. I really enjoyed viewing the curated photos, and I found some inspiration for the photoshoots I want to do now.
5. When you submit to prompts, do you normally find images in your archive that feel like a good fit or do you ever take new images for it?
I find some that fit in my archive, but most times I always just try to stretch my skills and create new ones just for the prompts.
6. If you could create a prompt for other photographers, what would it be and why?
“Silhouettes,” because I feel silhouettes have this energetic and emotional way of presenting a subject in shadows that create shapes. Silhouettes are also a great way of keeping an audience's mind busy and curious about what's happening in a picture. I would love to see a lot of creative silhouettes!
“Black and white photography.” I am really a fan of black and white photos because I feel it takes away all the distractions and lets the viewer focus on the ambiance or emotions the photo is communicating. It also makes a captured moment look timeless. Personally, I am a fan of black and white pictures, especially those of classic photographers like Gordon Parks and Fan Ho.
However, I feel a lot of photographers nowadays don't really like black and white photography, so they don't do a lot of black and white edits or photograph with black and white film. I feel a black and white prompt would be a great challenge for everyone.
7. Have prompts influenced, inspired, or changed how you think about photography?
Some prompts have inspired me to create more. What has inspired me in photos submitted to the prompts are some of the angles the photos were taken from, the outfit, and the lighting. I get inspired by prompt submissions.
8. When you submit to a prompt, do you ever look at the other photographer submissions?
Yes, I like to see fresh perspectives, just like how I like to see the photos other photographers create in a “different photographers photograph one model session.”
Similarly, I scroll down my screen three to five times on the prompts page to see what other photographers submitted. It's awesome to see.
Pushing creativity through shared themes
Abduljalil doesn't wait for the right prompt to find him. If the theme is there and the images aren't, he goes out and makes them.
For him, prompts are not a passive archive activity but an active creative brief. A reason to pick up the camera, try an angle he hasn't tried, and come back with something he wouldn't have made otherwise.
VSCO Prompts work exactly that way. Each month, a shared theme invites the community to respond—through work already made, or work created specifically for it. Standout submissions get curated and highlighted by the team. And the galleries themselves are worth scrolling through even when you're not submitting.
Because the best creative communities don't just share what they've already made. They give you a reason to make something new.
“I find some that fit for it on my archive, but most times I always just try to stretch my skills and create new ones just for the prompts.”
