Sunmi Smart-Cole, born September 25th, 1941, in Port Harcourt, of Nigerian-Sierra Leonean parentage, is reputed as the father of modern photography in Nigeria.

Sunmi is mostly self-taught. He was an elementary school teacher at age fifteen. At seventeen, he started training as an architectural draughtsman, and subsequently designed, among others, the country home of the late Sierra Leone's Prime Minister, Sir Albert Margai. As a Soul music drummer and jazz percussionist, in the 1960s, he was a founding member of the Soul Assembly.