Philip Kwame Apagya - NO TITLE
In the field of photography, the Ghanaians have a long tradition of using painted backdrops. These are large canvasses which are used as backgrounds for photographs. They could be painted with draped curtains, classic columns and stairways.
In the 1940s art photographers broke with these traditional images and designed alternatives which fit better with the taste of their public. They painted the backdrops with all sorts of aspects of the modernisation of Ghana: themes from urban life, dreamy images of houses, parks and airports, which symbolized modern life. They also painted interiors in which everything could be found which the person posing in front of them fantasized having. Apagya too makes use of such backdrops, painted in bright colours. He places people into this set, as though they are taking something out of the refrigerator, watching the television, or wandering through Manhattan. In this way he achieves lively studio portraits. He designs the backdrops himself and has them produced by a professional advertising artist.
