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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Grace Holliday

‘There are always cool things happening in Accra’: Derrick O Boateng’s best phone picture

Four smiling, bare-chested Ghanaian siblings, wearing golden shorts and blue/red crash helmets, grouped together against golden background
Noir Rider v4.0, 2019, shot on iPhone 12. Photograph: Derrick O Boateng, courtesy of Homecoming gallery Photograph: Derrick O Boateng/courtesy of Homecoming gallery

Dressed in matching golden shorts to signify their brotherhood, and helmets to symbolise protection, siblings Ibrahim, Nana Kofi, Benjamin and Kojo were smiling down the lens of Derrick O Boateng’s iPhone 12. The Ghanaian photographer was in Nungua town, in the capital, Accra – one of his favourite communities to shoot in. “There are always all sorts of cool things happening there: the busy market, kids on the beach, people fishing or playing football,” he says.

Bold colours are typical of his work; he coined the term Hue-ism to “create a bigger podium for artists like myself, painting with the colours of the continent, creating colour therapy and visual poetry showcasing the African perspective.”

He has never used a digital camera for his work, preferring his smartphone for its convenience. “It’s always ready for me to get great shots,” he says.

In the editing stages, he incorporates the “rich, deep colours I find everywhere, from our markets to our beaches to our homes, under the hard light that is Ghana”.

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