Dreams in Focus: The Visionary Behind Africa’s Premier Photobook Library

Paul Ninson, a photojournalist from Ghana, felt ecstatic — and astonished.

Upon arriving in New York five years ago to study photography, he uncovered a wealth of imagery depicting life in Africa, both historical and contemporary, within the archives of the city’s libraries, galleries, and museums.

Here he stood, thousands of miles away from Ghana, enveloped by more visual narratives of Africa than he had ever encountered back home.

This contradiction inspired him: to establish a library of photobooks in Ghana, bringing the African narrative back home and empowering individuals to discover their history and equip them to narrate new stories about the continent.

“A person cannot understand his genuine identity if he is unaware of his history and origins,” Ninson states. “To address issues in Africa, education is essential.”

This vision materialized with the founding of the Dikan Center in the capital city of Accra, Ghana. Dikan signifies “take the lead” in the Akan dialect, primarily spoken in southern Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. The library recently celebrated its second anniversary this past Monday.

Aspirations

This is not the first instance where Ninson aimed for an ostensibly unattainable dream. When he first sought a career in photography, the challenge felt immense. As Ninson explains, photography doesn’t hold much prestige as a profession in Ghana: “If you inform your parents you want to be a photographer, it was like, ‘Ugh, what? Become a lawyer.’”

Nevertheless, Ninson perceived photography as his vocation. He was profoundly impacted by the rich familial tradition of storytelling passed down by his grandparents, and later, enchanted by a friend’s photographs, developed a passion for photography. Merging these two arts felt instinctual, prompting him to dive in.

He sold his iPhone, acquired a camera, and commenced his photography studies, primarily through self-directed learning.

Initially embarking on his journey with commercial photography, Ninson quickly redirected his focus toward narratives that resonated deeply with him — those surrounding African history and culture that he would document as an emerging photojournalist. His 2017 project, “Village With No Men,” provided a profound glimpse into the village of Umoja in northern Kenya — a community exclusively for women, founded by those who escaped gender-based violence and oppressive patriarchal conditions in their previous villages.

New York mindset

Ninson persisted in pursuing a formal education in photojournalism. Unable to locate a fitting program in Africa, he departed from Ghana in 2019 to enroll in Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City. There, he immersed himself in the center’s vast collection of photobooks. In Ghana, he only had access to approximately five or six such volumes.

As he navigated through the city, he encountered more visual chronicles of Africa than he had ever witnessed at home, including documentation of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, at the New York Public Library. The museums and libraries he explored were reluctant to allow him to recover their archives for Africa, sparking his idea to create a library in Africa that would preserve such narratives.

Similar to coffee table books, photobooks serve as an excellent medium for storytelling since they are portable and can remain on a shelf indefinitely. Michael Itkoff, co-founder of Daylight Books, an organization dedicated to highlighting the works of documentary and conceptual photographers, has been publishing photobooks since 2010. Itkoff, a supporter of Ninson and the Dikan Center from the beginning, notes that photobooks provide a unique visual experience in today’s society, which often emphasizes the volume and rapidity of images available online. “The photobook offers a more intimate and slower — what I would describe as elegant — encounter with visuals,” Itkoff remarks.

The great book quest

With his characteristic resolve, Ninson began searching New York City for books to send to Ghana. While continuing his education during the COVID-19 pandemic, he rummaged through secondhand shops on the Lower East Side, engaged in online bidding competitions, and contacted publishers and galleries, some of which contributed hundreds of items. He maxed out his credit cards and filled his apartment walls with books, utilizing Uber and U-Haul trucks to transport them to storage units throughout the city.

He successfully gathered over 30,000 titles — primarily related to photography and filmmaking, along with issues of publications like National Geographic dating back to the early 1940s.

Ninson also received vital assistance from his friend and collaborator, Brandon Stanton, (the creator of Humans of New York). Stanton initiated a GoFundMe campaign that raised over $1.2 million to establish Dikan. With financial backing secured, Ninson was at last ready to prepare the collection for its ocean journey from the Bronx (where his shipping agent was situated) to Ghana.

In December 2022, the Dikan Center opened its doors just several hundred yards from the Gulf of Guinea — and the same ocean waters that once carried the ships of the Atlantic slave trade. In a former residence that has been refurbished to accommodate the center, everyone is welcome to engage with the African narrative for as long as they desire.

Dikan’s collection is divided into two parts: one focused on African and African American narratives, and the other featuring the work of photographers from across the globe. Ninson’s favorite book is also the oldest in Dikan’s collection and the first he acquired in New York: The Gold Coast Yesterday and Today by Paul Redmayne, publishedin the early 1940s. The publication features visuals created during the era when Ghana was still a colony referred to as the Gold Coast before achieving independence from British rule in 1957. The stories recounted from a colonial viewpoint of the nation that would later become Ninson’s homeland continue for him “a perpetual source of motivation in my work at Dikan, reminding me of the profound legacy we uphold and the narratives that deserve to be shared with the globe.”

George Koranteng hails from Accra and works as a digital communications expert with The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Ghana. With a keen interest in photojournalism and preserving Ghanaian culture and history, Danso frequents Dikan, often spending hours immersed in the resources. Danso reminisces that when he first searched “photojournalist” on Google, only white photographers appeared in the search results. “And the question I posed to myself is ‘Are there not any Black photojournalists or documentary photographers?’” he articulates.

Through Dikan’s photobooks, Koranteng found the opportunity to deeply engage with the works of Black photojournalists, including the legendary Gordon Parks, an American photographer celebrated for chronicling the civil rights movement and Black America. Danso had previously been aware of Parks, but being able to sit with the books allowed him to connect profoundly with Parks’ techniques and aesthetics, which significantly transformed his artistic approach. “He [Parks] possesses a unique talent for capturing compelling images of Black individuals. Thus, it genuinely altered the way I take photographs. I concentrate on how light interacts with the skin of individuals, how it influences the appearance of Black skins … particularly when it comes to creating striking visuals…”

Narrative development techniques

To enhance the offerings, Dikan conducts educational workshops, fellowships, and seminars focused on the skills linked to photojournalism and visual narrative, equipping a new generation of narrators and creative innovators with the necessary tools to convey fresh stories about the continent. Dikan’s initiatives to cultivate emerging storytellers have proven impactful, attracting seasoned industry professionals who travel to provide instruction. Among last year’s workshops; “Photojournalism: Crafting Visual Narratives,” was led by Pete Souza, the former chief official White House photographer during the Reagan and Obama administrations, along with veteran photo editor Alice Gabriner (National Geographic, TIME Magazine, and The New York Times). The center’s primary educational program is a comprehensive course in documentary storytelling and visual journalism akin to what Ninson completed at ICP. The inaugural cohort — eight students from Ghana and two from Nigeria — graduated last December.

In addition to the educational initiatives, Dikan also addresses the technological hurdles in visual storytelling by providing access to essential digital tools needed for narrating new stories. The center is equipped with a photography studio and grants access to computers, digital cameras (including 360-degree cameras), and virtual reality equipment.

Not all of Dikan’s narratives reside solely within the books on its shelves. Dikan organizes rotating exhibits and film presentations. The center’s current exhibition: “Tewahdo,” showcases the work of photographers Sehin Tewabe and Svenja Krüger, documenting the culture and lives of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians.

The Ghanaian Daniella Afful was deeply touched by Dikan’s second exhibition, “1957: Freedom and Justice,” which displayed photographs documenting Ghana’s independence from British rule. Afful remarked that it provided her with a fresh viewpoint on this significant moment in her nation’s past, as well as a broader insight into daily life at that time. “People genuinely frequented bars. You witness vintage dance styles captured on the walls … And I was entirely unaware that there were so many photographers back in the day. I thought photography was a modern phenomenon in Ghana…”

In Afful’s perspective, Dikan acts as a catalyst for the advancement of Ghana’s creative scene: “Dikan has amplified art, elevated photography. Dikan has instilled in us the hope that soon we could have a music library in Ghana. We could establish a film library in Ghana — anything to preserve our heritage and document our history.”

Max Posner is a documentary photographer based in Richmond, Virginia. You can view his portfolio at maxposner.com.