Eric Gyamfi

Eric Gyamfi (born 1990)[1] is a Ghanaian photographer, living in Accra, who has made work about queer lives there.[2] His work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Nubuke Foundation in Accra and the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg.[3][4] In 2019, he won the Foam Paul Huf Award.[5]

Early life and education

Gyamfi was born in Bekwai, Ghana.[1] He has a BA in information studies and economics from the University of Ghana (2010–2014). Since 2018, he has been studying for an MFA at the Department of Painting and Sculpture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi.[5]

Life and work

Gyamfi lives and works in Accra, Ghana.[1]

The series Just Like Us documents queer individuals and communities in Ghana, "to show queer people exist and that they are like anyone else". In Ghana, queer people are discriminated against, othered and same-sex sexual activity is illegal. Made in black and white, the photographs as described by Ekow Eshun in The Guardian, are an intimate evocation of everyday life, titled with studied plainness: Ama and Shana at lunch; Kwasi at Kokrobite beach; Atsu during dance; Kwasi in bed. When queerness is regarded as the opposite of normality, the answer, suggests Gyamfi, is to insist on the very ordinariness of the people being documented and in so doing declare them as individually complex as everyone else."[6][7][8]

A series of self-portraits, Asylum, explores African male sexuality against a backdrop of religion and tradition.[9]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

Awards

References
  1. "Eric Gyamfi - Biography". Olym Collection. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  2. "Aperture 227". Aperture. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
  3. "Exhibition: "Just Like Us: Constellations" by Eric Gyamfi - Goethe-Institut South Africa". Goethe-Institut. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
  4. "Exhibition: See me, see you by Eric Gyamfi - Art in Accra". Time Out Accra. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
  5. Smyth, Diane. "Eric Gyamfi wins the Foam Paul Huf Award". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  6. Naughton, Jake (4 April 2017). "Photos That Celebrate Ghana's L.G.B.T. Community". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  7. Eshun, Ekow (15 March 2020). "'A queer person can be anybody': the African photographers exploring identity". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  8. "Memories and beauty captured in Africa". BBC News. 17 January 2018. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  9. "In pictures: Lagos photo festival on African identity". BBC News. 2 November 2016. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  10. "Artists from Africa and her Diaspora". 5 January 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
  11. "Time Exclusive: Magnum Emergency Fund Announces 2016 Grantees". Time. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
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