As so often in life, a new direction can present itself by pure chance.

Malam Umar Wunti is a 43-year-old native of Bauchi, the capital of Bauchi State in northern Nigeria.

Nine years ago, he returned home from working as a shoemaker elsewhere in the country.

A year later, on what he describes as “a fateful day”, a young boy - aware of Malam Umar’s skill with leather - brought him a damaged football to mend.

So successful was the repair that he did the same for others, gradually becoming convinced he could make a football from scratch.

He did so - and that is how he has spent his working time over the last few years.

Malam Umar Wunti is the subject of the gallery featured here by 28-year-old Nigerian photographer Adolphus Opara.

Adolphus concentrates on documentary photography in his home country and has also worked in Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Benin, winning an award locally – in the Nigerian Breweries/Heineken Art Competition 2008 – and internationally, the Photo African Art Competition.

"Since 2001, Malam Umar Wunti, who shares an extended-family home with his wife and six children, has trained well over 30 young boys in the craft of making footballs – some of whom have gone on to make a living from it,” says Adolphus.

“I worked on this project for six days and spent almost all the time with Malam Umar, just hanging around him and seeing how he goes about his daily routine” continues Adolpus, who used natural light and a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a 24-105mm f4.0 lens and a 70-200mm f2.8 zoom lens.

“This is the way I usually work in projects. I always wait for those intimate moments between my subject and me. And somehow they always come.”