Isaiah Tagilala was four years old the first time he saw one of his drawings on a wall in his father’s office. It was a moment that left a lasting impression. “I realised two things,” he recalls. “One, that meant something, and two, that I now wanted every piece I make to go up on the wall.” That early spark would guide him from childhood sketches to photography, shaping the journey that has led to his first solo exhibition, Dancing With The Times, currently on display at the Epeli Hau’ofa Art Gallery at the University of the South Pacific in Suva.
The exhibition’s opening on March 12th 2026 was also the moment when Dr Katrina Talei Igglesden, Director of the Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture & Pacific Studies, announced OCACPS’s 2026 calendar, giving visitors and the arts community something to look forward to each month up to November. This positioned Isaiah’s work not only as a highlight of the gallery’s programme but also as part of a vibrant year-long celebration of Pacific arts and culture.
Now 26, Isaiah is a young iTaukei street photographer and collagist whose work captures the overlooked textures and rhythms of everyday urban life. His lens turns the streets and neighbourhoods of the capital Suva into a vibrant canvas, revealing moments people might walk past without noticing. For him, street photography is more than capturing an image; it is a way to tell stories about resilience, joy and the quiet strength of ordinary people.
Finding stories in the everyday
“At 18, I picked up my first DSLR, a Nikon D3400 – my dad’s camera – and decided to get serious,” Isaiah says. “I wasn’t sure how high I could go, or even what the highest level of photography looked like, but I knew that’s where I had to take it.” His early work, mostly landscapes and sunsets, now seems “mediocre” to him, but he considers those first experiments essential. They laid the foundation for his deep engagement with urban life in the capital Suva and Nausori town, where he wanders the streets in search of unspoken stories.
There are a few places he finds himself returning to again and again. “One is the Suva Bus Stand — that place really helped me build my confidence with shooting in public. When I first started, it was an exercise, and if you can work through all that cluster, every other place feels like a walk in the park. Another is Nabukalou Creek – in my research on Suva, I found out the creek was a major strategic point in times of tribal war, used as an emergency exit to the surrounding hills when battles weren’t going in favour of the Suva people. Renwick Road and Pratt Street are also favourites, as they were routes I walked in primary and high school to reach town after school.”
Isaiah’s work is characterised by a fascination with the ordinary. “Most of my work has a lot of biblical references,” he explains. “When I’m out taking pictures, I’m looking for the Davids standing up against Goliath, the Peters ready to strike the guards, Job in his suffering, and King Solomon with his immense wealth. Everywhere around us, people are fighting the fight of their lives, and that’s what I try to capture.”
“Everywhere around us, people are fighting the fight of their lives, and that’s what I try to capture.”
Street photography meets assemblage
The exhibition combines street photography with mixed-media assemblage, an approach Isaiah sees as inseparable from the art of observation. “Street photography and collaging – in fact all of art – is the same thing. It’s taking whatever we can find around us and composing it into something we love,” he says. The pieces on display juxtapose industrial textures, vibrant colours and the daily lives of Fijians in urban hubs, inviting viewers to see the familiar anew.
Among the works, one stands out for its creative struggle: The Banality of Unexamined Racism. “It took on so many faces and looked completely different countless times before getting to where it is now,” Isaiah shares. “Because of the long hours going back and forth, I’m a little more sentimental with it.” Each piece reflects his careful attention to detail, narrative depth and the often-overlooked humanity of urban life.
All of the pieces in the exhibition are available for purchase, giving visitors the chance to bring a part of Fiji’s urban life into their own spaces.
“Because of the long hours going back and forth, I’m a little more sentimental with it.”
Heritage and perspective
Being iTaukei influences his perspective deeply. Isaiah draws from history and heritage to approach his art with a sense of reverence. “I spend a lot of time in the national archives, and my late grandfather, Sepeti Matararaba, was the senior archaeologist at our national museum (Fiji Museum) for over three decades,” he explains. “Knowing our history helps me approach the work I do in the places I do it – with a reverence that only knowing your history can give you.”
Dr Katrina spoke about Isaiah’s exhibition with evident pride, weaving her perspective into the story of his work:
“It is exhibitions such as this one which make me the most humbled and grateful to be in the position that I am. The joy and immense talent that exudes from this next generation of artists, of which Isaiah is part, is something I am so excited for. I am so thankful that Isaiah chose to have his first ever solo show here at the Oceania Centre. The way in which he sees the world through the lens of his camera really is a dance with the times. Your eyes dance back and forth between subject matter, colours and experiences. Your mind dances with the rawness in which we are allowed into these images. Your soul dances with the subtle power, mana and dignity which Isaiah has captured within the works.”
Her words capture the essence of Dancing With The Times, inviting visitors to move beyond a casual glance at urban life, to truly notice the rhythms, textures and quiet stories of Fiji’s cities and towns and its people.
What visitors will take away
Isaiah hopes visitors will leave the exhibition with a renewed sense of perception. “To feel empowered,” he says simply. “To elevate their perception of Suva and other towns of Fiji.” His work encourages people to pause and notice the everyday, to see the extraordinary hidden in the mundane, and to recognise the quiet heroism in ordinary life.
Currently, Isaiah is balancing his art with other projects, including the late stages of preparing his second book and developing paintings for his next exhibition. He has also recently moved to Nadi to return to flying school, demonstrating a life that is as multifaceted and disciplined as it is creative.
Dancing With The Times runs until March 27th 2026 at the Epeli Hau’ofa Art Gallery at the University of the South Pacific in Suva. Entry is free, with donations welcomed. The exhibition is not only a showcase of Isaiah’s talents but also a testament to the energy and promise of Fiji’s next generation of artists.
Editorially curated by EXPLORE Fiji, connecting local places, people and stories.
Explore more of Isaiah Tagilala’s photography on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visualice_fiji/
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