Nubuke hosts photo exhibition
It is not often that one gets to be part of an open forum on photography in this country and that was probably why both audience and photographers seemed extremely delighted about the experience at the opening of the Compositions photo exhibition at the Nubuke Foundation in Accra.
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The exhibition was the outcome of a six-month workshop facilitated for five photographers, some of them first-timers, by internationally - acclaimed Ghanaian photographer, Nii Obodai, under the Nuku Studio Workshops project.
The photographers: Caleb Hampton, Seton Nicholas, Adoma Afful-Kwaw, Abdul Karim Abu and Peach were on hand to engage in conversation with the audience and it turned out to be worthy time spent expressing ideas on photography.
There were photographers in the audience and some of the issues raised by those with works on show resonated with them while the ordinary photo enthusiasts present also revelled in the discourse about the art form they loved.
“Photography isn’t as easy as everybody thinks it is where you just grab a camera and go out there and point it at just anything,” Nii Obai said when introducing the photographers in his charge during the workshop.
He pointed out that the pictures on display formed just a fraction of the joy and pain they went through to get to the exhibiting level.
“Along the way I tried to encourage them to use photography as a tool for self-discovery, to explore the environment, themselves, their loves and hates and also to use it to challenge their families and society,” Nii Obodai said.
The youngest photographer in the exhibition was 13-year-old Peach. She is what can be described as a conceptual photographer after seeing the two stories she tried to tell with images titled: The Battered Woman and The Mysterious One.
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Seton Nicholas has been a photographer for about seven years and he offered portraits and a series of pictures exploring land encroachment.
“I was compelled to step out of my comfort zone in order to narrate it with some perspective. Documentary photography requires a different sort of mindfulness than portraiture. One must be alert not only to the immediate scene but also to the broader story,” Nicholas said about his series on land dispute.
Abdul Karim Abu is a web and graphic designer and considers photography as an important ally to what he describes as his ‘digital craftsmanship.’
Adoma Afful-Kwaw showed pictures on the theme: Breaking the Stereotypes by looking at vocations virtually reserved for men such as masonry, carpentry and driving a taxi.
Caleb Hampton is an American living in Accra and has been taking photographs for a little over a year. He said though there were challenges photographing some people in the streets, others also willingly posed for him.
The key point one walks away with from the exhibition is that there is so much happening in our communities that can be fodder for discerning photographers.
The Compositions photo exhibition is curated by Nii Obodai and ends on February 28.