Gerald Annan-Forson: Revolution and Image-making in Postcolonial Ghana (1979–1985)

This booklet serves as a compact guide to the exhibition Revolution and Image-making in Postcolonial Ghana (1979–1985), a collaboration between The Africa Institute and Sharjah Art Foundation. Featuring the first retrospective of the work of Ghanaian photographer Gerald Annan-Forson, the booklet includes Forewords by Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, and Salah M. Hassan, Director of The Africa Institute. It also provides an introductory text by curator Jesse Weaver Shipley, artist, ethnographer, Professor of African and African American Studies and Oratory.

The exhibition features photographs primarily taken between 1979 and 1985. Revolution and Image-making in Postcolonial Ghana traces Ghana’s political and social life during a period of revolution and transformation captured through the photographer’s lens. It offers a visual story of postcolonial Ghana and its struggles and aspirations in the post-independence period. The photographer reshapes the viewer’s understanding of photography as a tool of radical image-making through his style of composition, lens focus, formal repetitions, character representation, and long-term commitment to documenting the changing landscape of Accra, Ghana.