It was in rapt attention that Arlene Woodard sat, perched on a wooden library chair, as images of colorfully dressed African men, women and children swam before her eyes.

The still images cut impressions like razor-edged photographs. A solitary Nigerian woman, standing in a marketplace, her face inked in intricate tattoos. A woman in the Ivory Coast dressed all in white, wearing layers of necklaces made from white and palest-pink shells, also fashioned into circlets crowning her black hair.

A photo of three boys, boxes turned upside down over their heads with eye holes cut out, standing on a barren, dusty patch of earth, dust coating their legs and feet.

Herself wearing the requisite khaki pants and white shirt, the Morton West High School junior simply was inspired.

“It’s amazing,” Woodard said. “It just opened my eyes and opened my heart to see the different cultures. The photos were absolutely brilliant.”

Woodard, of Berwyn, was one of several dozen Morton West High School photography class and African-American Unity Club students who attended a presentation Friday by award-winning children’s book author and photojournalist Ifeoma Onyefulu.

Onyefulu emigrated from Nigeria to attend college in London, opting to stay when she met her husband. Her books include A is for Africa, Here Comes Our Bride! An African Wedding Story, and Ikenna Goes to Nigeria, the latter earning her the 2008 Best Book for Younger Children award by the Children’s African Book Awards Committee.

Onyefulu said it was the birth of her first son that launched her children’s book author career, spawned out of her tenure as a photojournalist.

“You always have photographs of African children looking very vulnerable, very hungry,” she said. “I wanted to share with him the Africa I knew growing up. It’s like everywhere. You have weddings, Christmas.”

While visiting the Ivory Coast, Onyefulu captured a local tradition. The woman dressed in white wearing shell necklaces and circlets in her hair, was at a celebration in her honor.

“In West African culture if a woman gives birth, she stays home for 40 days,” she explained. “She was dressed up with shells to celebrate (the end of 40 days). To show she’s done.”

One photo of a vivid pink and blue building sported a sign reading: “Hair control unit.” Another showed a sign advertising another salon. This one read: “USA Clippers: Barbing and hair dressing salon complex.”

“He wanted more business,” Onyefulu added.

Instantly a chorus of “auw” went up from the girls at the image of a young boy with bright, light-colored eyes holding a much younger boy who was crying, his little fist still up near his chocolate-brown eyes.

“The mom came with these (light-colored) eyes, too,” Onyefulu began to explain in a soft, lilting voice. “And the dad. And the children. There is a section of West Nigeria where they have light eyes. It’s not because they’re mixed with Europeans.”

Morton West junior Stephanie Nunez, of Berwyn, said she is considering a career in travel photography. She said the photos were interesting, and never had seen images like those shot by Onyefulu. She agreed with Onyefulu’s assessment of the more typical images coming out of Africa, those of “poor-looking children.”

As for the picture of the three boys wearing boxes with eye holes on their heads, “This was taken in my village,” Onyefulu said. “Christmas in my part of the world is celebrated outside, not in.”

Woodard said she would love to travel with Onyefulu.

“I want to learn more,” she said. “I would try taking pictures like her and find out where I can write something about them and inspire everyone if they’ve been going through some rough times. It woke me up to see more about my heritage.”