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A FAN WHO BUILT THE BIGGEST PHOTO LIBRARY IN AFRICA

Saturday, October 23, 2021

In today’s newsletter, behind our latest cover image; capturing fall colors; baling hay in West Virginia … and the Architectural Photography Awards.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY DIKAN CENTER

By Whitney Johnson, Director of Visual and Immersive Experiences

“It was hard to find a single photography book in Ghana,” Paul Ninson (pictured above) told me when we met at the International Center of Photography, where he was a student before the pandemic.

He also told me what a fan he is of National Geographic.

When Paul began taking pictures in Ghana, he was determined to learn everything about photography. And as he told Humans of New York in an extraordinary blog post, he looked everywhere for inspiration, including old National Geographic magazines. The two issues pictured below, he told us, inspired him to tell African stories through an African lens and to advocate against wildlife trafficking and exploitative forms of wildlife tourism.

During his time at ICP, Paul began collecting photography books to bring home to Ghana. His single shelf of books quickly grew–to more than 30,000. By year’s end, Paul had filled a shipping container; he had enough books, he says, to build the largest photo library in Africa.

But “as my collection has grown, so has my dream,” Paul told Humans of New York. “I want to build more than just a library. I want to build an entire learning center. A home for photography in Ghana.” He has even chosen the name: Dikan, which in the Asante language means “To take the lead.” (A rendering of the center is below.)

RENDERING COURTESY DIKAN CENTER

His biggest dream for the center? As he says in a Reddit AMA that we hosted:

“My goal is to make visual education accessible to every African.”

Below are two photos from the wildlife tourism issue Paul admired, and three from our special Africa issue:

PHOTOGRAPH BY KIRSTEN LUCE

Baiting dolphins: Tourists on the Rio Negro in Brazil swarm an Amazon dolphin lunging for a baitfish dangled by the tour operator. Many of the numerous scratches on the dolphin’s skin are from brushes with other dolphins vying for bait. Hands-on wildlife encounters are popular in the region.

PHOTOGRAPH BY KIRSTEN LUCE

Elephant ‘play’: A British family enjoys a photo shoot with juvenile elephants at Lucky Beach on the island of Phuket. Many travelers, unaware of the training the captive elephants endure, view such picturesque experiences as the highlight of their trip.

PHOTOGRAPH BY PASCAL MAITRE

Chad: Searching for signs that Chad’s oil pipeline project helps local people, Roman Catholic clergy tour the oil-producing region around Doba.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ED KASHI

Nigeria: Drying cassava paste by gas flare, a market woman risks her life to earn a living in Afiesere. If a sudden flame surge doesn’t harm her, airborne toxins eventually might—risks that prompted activists to demand an end to gas flaring.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LYNN JOHNSON

Zambia: “They are all my friends,” Mariate Banda, standing at center, says of the laughing women who fill the Cinderella beauty shop in Mfuwe. Her small salary makes saving difficult, but Mariate tells photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Lynn Johnson she has a goal: “My life’s ambition is to have my own equipment.”

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TODAY IN A MINUTE

Spotlighting the once-marginalized: Museums and galleries in New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Richmond, among others, have been featuring works of Black photographers, as well as artists from other racial and ethnic groups. The artists include both newcomers and those already established in photographer, the New York Times reports.

Stunners in architecture: Images of a curvilinear hotel in Dubai and a Hong Kong tower in complete darkness after residents were evacuated during lockdown are finalists for the Architectural Photography Awards. The winners will be announced at the annual World Architecture Festival in December. Flip through the gallery of finalists.

Capturing fall colors: Autumn brings to mind fascinating hues of orange, red, gold, and national parks such as Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, and Yosemite. Rebecca Latson, a contributing writer and photographer for National Parks Traveler, provides tips on how to get the best images in the outdoors this season.

BEHIND THE COVER

PAINTING BY KADIR NELSON

Portraying the world’s greatest discoveries: For the cover of National Geographic’s November issue, painter Kadir Nelson grouped together more than a third of the 100 discoveries in the magazine’s double-wide cover (pictured above). His idea was cinematic: Let your eyes meander past the Titanic, Stonehenge, Native American stone painting, King Tut, King Taharqa, and China’s terra-cotta figures. “It's like a film,” he tells us. “A film is a series of these moments strung together, and it's kind of like our memory—the way that we think of our past, this string of stories, string of moments.” Read the interview here; subscribers can read the cover story here.

SUBSCRIBER EXCLUSIVE

PHOTO OF THE DAY

PHOTOGRAPH BY @MARCOZORZANELLO

Gauging the health of the sea: A seahorse preserved in an alcohol ampoule in a museum near Venice. The three well-known species of seahorses in the Mediterranean live in sheltered areas such as seagrass beds. Seahorse populations are one of the biological indicators for determining the health of the water. In the past this species disappeared around Venice, mainly due to pollution. The cultivation of invasive shellfish also destroyed the seahorse's particular environment. Thanks to restoration programs in the last couple of decades, the Venice Lagoon habitat has become cleaner and many species have come back. This image was made on assignment for an upcoming Nat Geo story.

LAST GLIMPSE

PHOTOGRAPH BY JODI COBB, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION

Working together: A farm couple in West Virginia tosses, catches, and stacks bales of hay after harvest. This unpublished photo by longtime Nat Geo staffer and contributor Jodi Cobb came on assignment for a 1976 story on the state’s recovering fortunes, says the National Geographic Society’s Sara Manco, who chose this week’s photo. “I love the smiles on the faces of this couple,” says Sara, our senior photo archivist.

SEE VINTAGE PHOTOS

This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Rita Spinks, Alec Egamov, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea or a link? We’d love to hear from you at [email protected]. Thanks for reading!

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