Northern Ghana Life

Since 2016, Nuku Studio and Noorderlicht (House of Photography in The Netherlands) have been collaborating on the project “Northern Ghana Life” (working title). 11 Ghanaian and international photographers have made a visual documentation of the society and landscape of Northern Ghana, as part of a research project with four universities, including University of Ghana in Legon and the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Wa and Tamale.

The project results in the launch of a book and an exhibition in September 2018 as part of Nuku Photo Festival Ghana, the country’s first festival for photographic encounters, exchanges, and story-telling.

The works of photographers Abdulai Adam (Ghana), Dennis Akuoku-Frimpong (Ghana), Geoffrey Buta (Ghana), Peter DiCampo (USA), Eric Gyamfi (Ghana), Francis Kokoroko (Ghana), Benedicte Kurzen (France), Gerard Nartey (Ghana), Seton Nicholas (Ghana), Nii Obodai (Ghana), and Patrick Willocq (France) allow a nuanced and visually dynamic photographic insight into the richness, beauty, and uniqueness of the region.  

“Northern Ghana has rarely been the subject of collaborative photographic research, and in a historical and a photographic sense we may even go as far as to call it a terra incognita. The stories by the photographers invite us to explore the diverse and dynamic region that is Northern Ghana. They provide a visual interpretation of a largely undocumented landscape, and document its current state-of-affairs for future generations,” says Nii Obodai, Founder of Nuku Studio and Director of Nuku Photo Festival.

The photography project is in collaboration with an academic project involving four universities (University of Ghana in Legon, University of Development Studies in Wa and Tamale, Leiden University and University of Groningen, The Netherlands), and six PhD students who conducted research into the society and history of Northern Ghana, specifically on two peoples: the Dagomba and the Gonja.