GHANA ACCORDING TO DENIS DAILLEUX.
By Nii B. Andrews
After his groundbreaking portraits from Egypt, Denis Dailleux turned his camera on Ghana.
Following several research visits to Ghana, Dailleux chose to highlight in his photographs the interplay between body and space, water and land, permanence and transience, life and death.
The photos are nuanced and subtle. They are completely at variance with the clichés of culture and the touristic voyeur.
This is most refreshing for those of us who call Ghana home and yearn for a realistic assessment of its current state in order to strategize and implement a plan for continuously improving it.
To his immense credit, Dailleux appears to have effectively developed a strong bond between himself and his photographed subjects.
His patience, warmth and empathy appear to come through notwithstanding his own confession of perennial self doubt.
Dailleux’s photos are important for they capture a constantly under performing country in its pathos and true complexity, hopefully as it struggles, aches and groans to make a giant leap forward.
I was honored to host his exhibition at my gallery last year , in Usshertown .
Also had him on my radio show, where our creative panelists teased out many levels of his philosophy behind imagery .
It is one he will not forget! Haha
There clearly are undertones of the nihilistic and voyeurism , but in creativity it’s s license to thrill!
I appreciate his take on context , as I hope others will mine.
Thanks for yet another ‘ exposè on the arts’ , from within or without.
Thanks JOA,
It’s all good when we get to interrogate the photographer.
It must have been fun.
Now, should we not also be looking for some to date anonymous Asian photographers?
I certainly have a few questions for them ( which I trust they will answer with candour).
Have a great day.
I love pictures one and two.
Such innocence and happiness with so little.
The girl in one reminds me of a little girl in Jirapa abou 6-7 years ago whose mother we saved from certain death.
On one of our voluntary medical trips to Jirapa hospital, out of boredom, a friend and I decided to explore the wards.
She saw a young lady from a poor family who lived in a small village, about 26 years old with a 2year old daughter.
The mother had had 2 laparotomies for typhoid fever and had been left with a significant abdominal fistula.
She was in a cot in the corner of a sheltered ward corridor, nil by mouth on IV crystalloids for 6 to 8 weeks. She had extreme pallor and significant pedal edema and had lost the will to live.
I called up a senior surgeon who was on the trip with us but elsewhere, with the hospital administrator’s backing (he was the only doctor for that hospital). The surgeon said to start feeding immediately but slowly and gently. My friend handed her the litre bottle of water she was carrying around and said she could start drinking.
The ward nurse volunteered to cook simple meals for her out of her own pocket initially. What an angel.
When we got back the next morning, this young lady had ventured out of the ward into the sunshine for the first time in weeks.
Her whole mental attitude had taken a U turn. We managed to transfer her to a larger hospital where she had corrective surgery.
The following year we travelled laterite roads and through the countryside to find her and her daughter and parents.
She was a different person. She is still alive by his grace.
Her daughter should be about this age now. It’s a beautiful picture.
Thanks for this vignette, COA.
I am happy that the photograph brought back this important anecdote that you are able to share with us.