Inspiring accidental story: How a bread seller became a model overnight

Graphic.com.gh Life Feb - 12 - 2016 , 14:21 2 minutes read

A Cinderella story for the age of Instagram. Olajumoke Orisaguna, 27, was working as a breadseller in Lagos, Nigeria, when she unintentionally walked through a photoshoot of Tinie Tempah in his home country.

Photographer Ty Bello didn’t think much of Olajumoke or her casual photobomb until later, when she was going through and editing the photos.

That’s when she noticed that she’d accidentally taken a truly incredible shot – and that Olajumoke was someone pretty special. Bello immediately set out to track down Olajumoke, writing on her Instagram: ‘Everyone has been asking if this lady is a model… It was just perfect coincidence…

‘She just happened to be walking by while I photographed. She definitely SHOULD be a model… I’m happy to help her build a portfolio if she’s interested. ‘She’s so beautiful and photographed so well. I’ll find a way to track her down somehow. You guys can also help.’

With a lot of searching, Bello managed to track her new muse down. She discovered that Olajumoke is a mother of two with an incredible life story. Wrote Bello on Instagram: ‘A hair stylist from Ire in Osun state but not making enough profit between her and her husband, – a sliding door installer from same village, – to care for their two young children.

‘At the invitation of a distant relative who knew someone operating a bakery, she relocated to Lagos with her 14-month-old daughter to give bread hawking a try, leaving her husband and older five-year-old behind.’ Bello decided to create a short documentary about Olajumoke, and pulled some strings to get her on the cover of Style magazine.

Just a few days later Olajumoke was starring in a high fashion photoshoot, along with her younger child, 14-month-old Grace.

A team gave Olajumoke a model makeover, removing her extensions to give her a close crop, and keeping her makeup minimal.

She was a total natural in front of the camera. ‘She stepped in front of my camera and I almost couldn’t recognise her,’ wrote Bello. ‘She moved different too. Jumoke looked straight into my lens emoting like she had done this all her life. ‘I knew we had found a star.’ On Monday, Olajumoke had been signed to local modelling agency Few Models.

And yesterday, she went to her first booked job.