We all crave for beauty, don’t we? Amidst all the sad news of famine and floods that I look at every day on my computer screen, I need to look at something beautiful, too.
When you think about photos and Africa, what is the first thing you see in your mind’s eye? Right now what I see, is starving people, but I don’t want that.
I fight against that by looking at the stunning photographs by Ghanaian photographer Nana Kofi Acquah: nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com
One of my favorites is this one about the woman with the snake around her neck. Wow! And there are many other wonderful, colorful portraits, as well as the most beautiful street scenes.
Acquah writes that his blog is “where he rants”. He writes poems – the most recent of which is about Steve Jobs – and talks about e.g. photography in Africa
Photographs, just for the sake of photographs is a totally new concept currently being embraced by a relatively younger generation, most of whom have never owned or used an analogue camera. nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-neighbours-african-photographer-and.html
and passion and success
The only thing that beats passion is wisdom. And by wisdom, I mean knowing exactly what is worth being passionate about and what isn’t ... What we need to succeed is not OUT there. It is IN us. You need to block out all the noise and passionately follow where your heart leads you.
nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com/2011/09/potion-of-passion.html
Acquah “rants” about bad quality education:
It’s heart breaking to watch very brilliant minds go to waste due to the horrible foundation they received. The saddest part is, most of these kids were as useful as a half-baked bread. You can’t eat it… and yet you’ve wasted your flour, butter and time. Quality Education is the single, most important gift any government can give its populace. nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com/2011/08/remember-children.html
and shares his realization about how hard Ghanaian people are working:
Sometime last year, I was supposed to make portraits of two successful Ghanaians for the Financial Times. Their office is very close to this market. I wanted to use the early morning light so I told them I will arrive at 6am. Now, please understand that I’m rather slow in the mornings so for me, 6am was an amazing feat. I was shocked to get stuck in traffic at that time and if that was not surprising enough, I saw people hopping out of “trotros” and taxis and rushing towards the market. A few of them nearly knocked me over. On that day, it dawned on me how hard working Ghanaians are.The average Ghanaian wakes up at 4am. Yes, 4:00 AM to sweep the house, clean, cook bath and feed the children before going to work. Now, the question is, if they’re that hardworking, why are they poor? nanakofiacquah.blogspot.com/2011/07/bone-breakers.html
If you have even one minute, do check out this energizing blog. In these photos, you get a glimpse of how beautiful life could and should be all around Africa.
