Nana Yaw Oduro

NANA YAW ODURO IS A GHANIAN PHOTOGRAPHER BORN IN 1994 AND BASED IN ACCRA.

He graduated from the business class of the University of Ghana in May 2017 and started photographing in 2015. Nana Yaw Oduro’s photos provide fictional self-portraits in which his models are like actors, playing a biographical role. Nana Yaw Oduro is, thus, the stage director of his own emotions during the performance of a photo shoot.

The pictorial composition helps to read these personal stories: the characters are individualised and stand out from their surroundings. The space of each picture is defined without being too precise: a piece of beach, a cracked piece of land, a blue wall... it could be anywhere and at the same time nowhere. Arousing the curiosity of the viewer, these captures seem out of time. They embody a desire for freedom with the only existing boundary being the photographer’s imagination.

The stories his pictures present are composed using a mixture of his personal emotions, evident in the colours of his environment. Nana Yaw Oduro uses alternatively tender, pure, and raw colours in his photographs, alongside those captured in black and white. Whether the colours are bold or in shades of grey, the chromatic treatment structures his images and produces a certain softness and harmony between shapes and colours, between man and nature; underpinning the narrative. Thus, there is no predetermined and systematically repeated concept in Nana Yaw Oduro’s work. The photographer creates each of his images based on his sensation. He is free from any rule and lets his imagination wander, composing with what is in existence around him. His photos are inspired by daily life, a song running through his ears, a horse that crosses his path, or a basket of fruits under his eyes. Creativity has no limit for him, inspiration is everywhere, poetry is everywhere.

In 2022, he won the People’s Choice Award, Photo London x Nikon Emerging Artist of the Year Prize. His work has been presented during international art fairs such as Photo London and 1-54 London and published in the Magazine of the New York Times. He also had two solo shows in Paris with AFIKARIS Gallery.