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Award Winning Visual Storyteller & Strategic Adviser serving Presidents & Institutions @abiolaajimobi @profosinbajo @drakinwumiadesina @worldbankgroup
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#tolanialli#storyteller#unga81#theessentials#photography#blackwomenphotographers#hireblackwomenphotographers#thehat
Recent posts
I went to the South of France to tell a story about life and the celebration of it… and came back with lessons for a lifetime.
Over the summer, I was flown to the South of France to document a 10-day 40th birthday celebration with about 20+ incredibly successful entrepreneurs, businessmen and women. I can’t share most of what I photographed, but man… what an experience.
The Keona Experience (https://thekeona.com) outdid themselves. Every guest had a villa, chef made meals, every day had its own look and rhythm; tennis, pool days, Money Market dinners, Africa Day with correct Nigerian food made by a chef who came in from Paris. Even breakfast spread everyday looked ready for an Architectural Digest shoot. It was a masterclass in luxury, experience, planning, design and detail.
Creatively, I loved it because every day forced me to tell the story differently. Portraits, Films, couples, friendships, movement, quiet moments, details, laughter… all the things that eventually become memory.
Then the host insisted on a Money Market and Business day. Everyone went around the room sharing what made them successful, what they failed at, the mistakes that cost them and the principles life had taught them never to compromise. I sat there thinking… this is a practical MBA.
And perhaps the biggest lesson was simply watching them. Some of the wealthiest people I have ever encountered are thick as thieves. They share information, make introductions, open doors and build bridges. Meanwhile, people with far less will sometimes fight over crumbs and destroy relationships trying to get ahead.
Everybody is not your competition. There are levels you may never reach alone, doors relationships will open that talent cannot, and bridges you should have the wisdom never to burn.
Forever grateful for the rooms storytelling continues to open for me. Thankful to amazing clients who trusted me to bring their story to life. And yes… now I understand why the wealthy love the South of France. 🇫🇷
31 Aug 2026
Story, story, story. Once upon a time.
That’s how I opened the @worldbankgroup fireside chat on Day 2 with @kadvander &
@careerculturehq .
What I didn’t know was that more than ten years ago, a young lady in Ibadan, Nigeria, @_olamide___ had shown her father a video of me at work to convince him to let her pursue photography.
A week ago, our paths crossed at the World Bank.
You never really know where your story will travel. Some stories you tell. This one told me something back.
21 Jun 2026
Sarki Mai Oil is Next
The first time I documented Alhaji @aliko_dangotegcon , we were in Oyo State, Nigeria.
It was a party. The King Sunny Ade was on the mic. The moment Alhaji walked in, KSA stopped everything and called him out the way only KSA can. Alikooooooooo Dangooooo. Alhaji Dangoteee. Sarki Magaida. Sarki Macaroni. Sarki Suggggar. Seriki Spaghetti.
The room did not just react. It erupted. I was standing there behind my lens and I could not believe what I was watching.
I remember thinking recently, next time KSA sees him, it will be Seriki Oil.
That same light came alive in me last week when he walked into World Bank President Ajay Banga’s office, then the IFC with its MD Makhtar Diop in Washington D.C. 🇺🇸 , and then got announced as the surprise keynote for Water Forward.
When it was over, the room surrounded him. Ministers, delegates, people who had crossed oceans to be in that building. One minister said it for everyone. We are all here to see Aliko Dangote.
Later that evening, Time named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world.
Nobody was having a better week. And he carried all of it like it was just another Tuesday.
As Nigerians we move fast, we dream big, we normalise the extraordinary. But the rest of the world stops and stares. That day I watched them stare and I felt something I could not put into words.
But here is what got me most. Through all of it, he was already on to the next thing. Talking about Africa. Talking about legacy. Talking about hiring the best and still studying every layer of the work himself. And his memory. The man forgets nothing. Not the small things. Not the quiet acts of kindness. Not the people who showed up for him before anyone was watching.
Someone in the room was surprised he knew who I was. He turned to them and reeled out my career history. That made my week.
Beyond being Africa’s richest man, he is human first. No airs. No protocol. Just vision, audacity and a heart that says if you are not with me get out of my way, I have something to build.
Some men build empires. Alhaji Aliko Dangote builds people too and that is the rarest thing of all.
#TolaniAlli #Storyteller
23 Apr 2026
My sister, @tolanialli - The one I call the prophetic photographer.
This sister here is a global ambassador and dignitary for the kingdom. Keep a keen eye on her. She’s about to do some great things. By the way. She’s also a HC partner and a kingdom builder.
Tolani comes very highly recommended. Her works her not just world class but inspired and anointed
03 Nov 2026
26 nights. One proclamation: THE LORD REIGNS. I’m late, but I must bless the man who sounded the trumpet.
Father, @nathanielblow reminded nations that You sit upon the throne. Let that throne speak for him. Defend him, hear his unspoken prayers and replenish him where applause cannot reach.
Pastor @nathanielblow , may the sound God placed in your mouth never cost you the song in your soul. May the mantle increase without crushing the man. May kings honour you as you bow before the King of Kings. As You promised in Psalm 132, let the horn of Your anointed flourish and his lamp never go out. May you never arrive at the harvest too weary to feast upon it.
We dressed like our miracles. Father, clothe him in what money cannot buy: wisdom, friendships without agenda, rest without guilt and joy that needs no audience. We declared THERE SHALL BE NO LOSS. Let there be no loss of health, peace, love or years. Let no assignment prosper at the expense of his home.
For Pastor @saranata00 , give her blessings that bear her own name. Reward the sacrifices nobody saw and answer the prayers nobody heard. Crown her with honour beyond the ministry the world sees. Let their marriage remain a garden of Your delight. Let their children know You as Father, not merely as the God their father preaches. May they inherit faith as a gift, never ministry as a burden.
Father, remember every soul at @hallelujahchallengelive. You know the faces behind the lights and every sacrifice. They helped others dress like their miracles; let them walk into their own. May the congratulations they helped others rehearse become the news their families celebrate. IT WILL STILL COME TO PASS. Revive every promise they almost buried. GOD IS INVOLVED, THEREFORE IT WILL NOT FAIL. Enter even the matters they have stopped discussing.
And Father, let miracles follow them home. Give PN, his family and every hand that served testimonies no livestream could contain. May their children’s children know the King they proclaimed to nations as the God who was faithful in their own homes. THE LORD REIGNS.
In Jesus’ name. Amen. ❤️
02 Nov 2026
FROM THE INSIDE: 05
113 Heads of State and Government. 194 delegations addressing the General Assembly. About 166 events across High Level Week. 1,553 requests for bilateral rooms. Around 18,000 active delegate badges. Big numbers, until you stand inside the machinery that makes them possible.
One President leaves a bilateral and another is already on the move. Before the next walks in, the room has to become another country’s room. Flags are changed. Nameplates checked. Seating adjusted. Security and protocol are already several steps ahead.
Then you enter the General Assembly Hall and realise the same precision is everywhere. A President approaches the famous green marble podium. The guards take their positions. Interpreters are ready to carry every word into other languages almost as quickly as it is spoken. Names, titles, speaking order, movement and timing all have their place. Even who speaks first carries history. Brazil traditionally opens the General Debate, followed by the United States as host country.
Suddenly the scale becomes human. One flag, one name, one translation, one movement, one person standing exactly where they need to be, then another.
That was what I wanted to capture behind the scenes. Not simply the world arriving, but the thousands of decisions and details that allow it to arrive without feeling the weight of what it took to receive it.
Watching the people carrying that operation, I assumed many had been doing it for years. Yet some had only been specially selected and brought into the assignment 2 or 3 weeks earlier. They had been briefed, trained and absorbed into the rhythm so thoroughly that you could barely tell who had been there for years and who had only recently entered it.
That is when “plug and play” stopped sounding like corporate language to me. At this scale, it means building a system clear enough for someone new to enter, learn its rhythm and carry their part without becoming the reason it slows down.
Then those numbers at the top stop being numbers. They become thousands of tiny things being done correctly, over and over again, so the world can walk into a room and simply begin.
01 Nov 2026
Sometimes the clearest evidence of an idea’s power is what other people go on to build because they once encountered it. Years before Women Rise for All took the form we know today, @aminajmohammed was already bringing women together across government, development, business and leadership. Anna Bjerde was among those invited into one of those early gatherings. Today, as Managing Director of Operations at the @worldbankgroup , Anna convenes annually the Women Leaders Breakfast at the World Bank and IMF meetings. An idea became a mirror of possibilities for another woman, and that woman went back into her own institution and created another room.
That is the thread I kept seeing while documenting @aminajmohammed at #UNGA81. Women Rise for All has gathered Heads of State, First Ladies, ministers, CEOs, philanthropists and younger women building extraordinary things of their own. You could see @dvf in the room, and elsewhere @wawira , whose Food4Education has served more than 200 million meals and employs thousands across Kenya, sitting over lunch with the President of Namibia. And nobody felt ornamental.
@aminajmohammed has created a room where seniority does not only speak downwards and youth does not only look upwards. People like us get to inherit the experience of our elders: what it took to build, survive difficult rooms, make decisions and carry responsibility. Our elders, in turn, encounter the audacity and imagination of women coming behind them. Both generations leave with their sense of what is possible expanded by the other.
She does not seem interested in access for access’ sake. Once the door opens, she expects something from you: step forward, know why you are there, bring your ideas, use the access and build something with it. And when you can, open another door. Anna encountered that possibility and created a room of her own. And the chain continues.
That is what I saw permeate Women Rise for All: women gathered to celebrate a woman who has spent years affirming women, but also expecting more from them. Not simply, “Come into the room.” Come in, make your presence count, and make sure you are not the last woman through the door.
26 Oct 2026
FROM THE INSIDE: 04
If you’ve watched The Devil Wears Prada, you probably remember “The Book.” Every night it arrives, it is reviewed, marked up and returned ready for the next day. Not the character, the ritual.
Long before that, ancient civilisations had scrolls that preserved records, instructions, decisions and the workings of enormous systems so knowledge was not lost as the work moved forward. I found myself thinking about that while watching DSG @aminajmohammed work.
She has a book too, and it goes with her. She only has specific windows to sit with it, yet somehow seems to know what is inside it by heart: the feedback, what needs attention, what must be carried forward, the speeches, the questions, the decisions and what tomorrow needs from today. Her excellence has a system, but the system does not end with her.
She asks questions. Proper questions. She will go through a speech and ask, “What are we actually saying here?” “What is the major goal?” “What is the one thing we need to get out of this room?” That was when the book became something else entirely for me. It was no longer just a record of the work, but a way of teaching everyone around her how to think about the work. Senior staff, junior staff, everyone has to be across it, not simply completing tasks but understanding why the task matters, what the room requires and what success should look like.
The more I watched, the clearer it became that she was doing two things at once: preparing for the rooms she was entering while preparing the people around her for the rooms they may one day enter themselves, and through the way she showed up, teaching them what those rooms require.
I love being challenged, so I recognised the value of that immediately. There is something rare about a leader who can see where you are going, hold you to the standard required to get there and make your growth part of the work itself.
In my head, I started calling it The DSG Papyri, one living record inside a much bigger system of excellence, making sure the work moves, the memory remains and tomorrow begins before today has quite ended.
The Book
DSG @aminajmohammed lays down her book on the office table
The C
23 Oct 2026
📸✨: Join us on October 25th for Positioning, Relationships, and High-Stakes Assignments with Tolani Alli (@tolanialli).
✨ This session will delve into how to position yourself professionally, build client relationships, and prepare for high-stakes assignments while honing your business and people skills. Whether taking on your first paid work or looking to bump your career up to the next level, this class will give you the practical strategies to thrive long-term by building a sustainable photography business.
✨ Tolani Alli is a Creative Strategist, Director, and Producer working across film, photography, and institutional storytelling. Her work sits at the intersection of leadership, perception, and memory, shaping how institutions, leaders, and ideas are seen and understood over time. She currently works with the senior leadership of the World Bank Group, where she documents and helps shape the institution’s visual narrative at the highest level. Prior to this, she served as Executive Creative Adviser and Digital Storyteller to Dr. Akinwumi Adesina CON at the African Development Bank, where she led visual storytelling and advised on narrative, digital presence, and content strategy across the institution. Her work spanned multiple African countries and global convenings such as COP28 and the G7 Summit. Her work has been featured by CNN, the United Nations, BBC News, World Press Photo, and The Guardian. Alli’s work is guided by a clear belief: that storytelling is not separate from strategy. It is how institutions are understood, how trust is built, and how legacy is shaped.
Registration is free and available for all to attend.
#TheEssentials #photography
#blackwomenphotographers
#hireblackwomenphotographers
15 Oct 2026
FROM THE INSIDE: 03
There is busy, and then there is whatever I watched Deputy Secretary General @aminajmohammed do during UNGA. I genuinely thought I understood what work rate looked like, but @aminajmohammed gave that definition an entirely new meaning for me.. Somewhere in the middle of that week I remember thinking, Omo… Tolani, you have work to do.
Let me show you why…..
It wasn’t just how much she was doing. It was how purposeful all of it felt. During General Assembly week, I watched her move from meetings to speeches, conversations to bilateral engagements, across subjects that could each consume an entire day: the SDGs, development, Africa, AI, women and girls, financing, diplomacy, partnerships and reform.
On some days, I counted 4 or 5 speeches, sometimes 6, even 7, and that was just the speeches. There were also responsibilities delegated by the SG, bilaterals with world leaders alongside him, podium duty, meetings, conversations and everything else the week demanded.
About 80% of our days started at 6am and very often ended around midnight. I genuinely started asking myself: when does she sleep? When does she wake up? Because you don’t get ready for a 6am start at 6am.
But even that wasn’t the part that burst my brain. It was the command. The subject could change completely from one room to the next and she wasn’t simply arriving with talking points. She was completely across the work: the context, who was in the room, why the conversation mattered and what needed to come out of it.
That kind of command doesn’t come from effort alone. It comes from mastery.
And perhaps that is why excellence can look remarkably calm when the work behind it is unrelenting and extraordinary.
#TolaniAlli #Storyteller #TheHat #UNGA81
14 Oct 2026
UNGA81, from the inside. 01
100,000+ photographs, and somehow nothing quite prepares you for stepping inside one of the most powerful stages in the world. The speeches, arrivals, handshakes, motorcades, meetings and rooms are familiar because we have all seen them before. After a while, you think you understand the choreography. But seeing it from the outside is one thing. Experiencing it from inside the offices carrying the institution through the week is another entirely.
This was the final UN General Assembly of Secretary-General @antonioguterres and Deputy Secretary-General @aminajmohammed in those roles, and my assignment gave me a very different vantage point: telling the story and documenting the people carrying the institution for 11days.
Somewhere in the middle of it all, I started thinking about buildings.
A building may be recognised by its walls, but anyone who understands buildings knows there is an entire architecture carrying its weight.
That became one of the most interesting things to watch up close. I saw SG Guterres carrying the political responsibility of leading the United Nations through heads of state engagements, diplomacy, global crises, difficult conversations and decisions. I saw DSG @aminajmohammed carrying a different but equally demanding set of responsibilities across development, reform, coordination, partnerships and implementation.
Different responsibilities, different pressures, different kinds of leadership, one institution.
There was a phrase the SG @antonioguterres once used about her that kept coming back to me. He described her as “the centre of management and strength to make things happen.” Watching them work gave those words a different meaning.
I left a note in my thoughts that week: leadership at this scale is rarely a solo photograph. Institutions this consequential are held up by different kinds of leadership working at the same time.
Perhaps that is the thing about great architecture. You rarely see everything holding it up. You simply know that it stands.
11 Oct 2026
FROM THE INSIDE: 02
If all you know of UNGA is that one week in September when presidents, prime ministers and motorcades seem to take over New York, you’re not wrong. You’re just seeing the most visible part of it.
The General Assembly is one of the main organs of the United Nations and, in many ways, the closest thing the world has to one room where every country gets a seat. There are 193 Member States, and every one of them gets a vote. Nigeria gets one. The United States gets one. China gets one. Rwanda gets one. However big or small the country is, the vote is still one. That alone is quite something when you stop to think about it.
The Assembly deals with everything from peace and security to development, international law, humanitarian issues and the UN’s budget. It is also one of the few places where countries that may disagree on almost everything still have to sit across from one another, argue their positions, negotiate, vote and, sometimes, find common ground.
And UNGA is much bigger than the week most of us see on television. The General Assembly session opens every September and the work continues long after the motorcades leave New York. What most people know as “UNGA week” is the high-level period around the General Debate, when Heads of State and Government arrive in New York and take that famous green marble podium to tell the world where their countries stand.
That was the part I had seen for years: the speeches, the flags, the arrivals, the photographs. But being inside it made me realise that the speeches are almost like the front door. Behind them is an enormous machinery of meetings, negotiations, bilaterals, resolutions, committees, diplomacy and decisions all moving at the same time.
So when you hear “UNGA,” don’t just think about presidents giving speeches. Think about 193 countries, with different histories, interests, problems and ambitions, all trying, however imperfectly, to figure out how to share one world.
12 Oct 2026
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