By Prince Acquah
Moree (C/R), Dec. 17, GNA – Renowned Ghanaian photographer, Thomas Fynn, has opened a year-long photo exhibition at Moree, a traditional fishing community in the Central Region, to promote the rich heritage of Ghana and boost the country’s tourism industry.
The exhibition, dubbed: “Spirit Possession” captures the spirit and soul of Ghana, embodied in its colourful mosaic of a million cultures, and tells a unique story of resilience, beauty, and pride over the past 30 years.
Mr Fynn, the Chief Executive Officer of FynnExhibits, a photography organisation specialised in tourism, mounted the exhibition in collaboration with Thomas Appleton Lamb, an American photographer and ecotourism expert, to drive development through their lenses.
The exhibition, a sequel to earlier exercises held in California, USA and Accra, this year, features various sub-themes such as eco-tourism, ethno-cultural presentations, rites of passage, chieftaincy, traditional music and dance, cuisines, and political stability and unity.
Having jointly documented Ghana for more than 30 years, the exposition provides an intimate and modern face on West Africa and the origins of the slave trade.
Mr Fynn’s photography visually records Ghana’s tragic history, rich culture, and beautiful people, while Mr Lamb’s ethnographic photography offers a fascinating contrast and complement to Mr Fynn’s work.
The photos will be on display until December 2025 at the photography museum at the Moree Event Centre Complex, a multipurpose multimedia edifice for training the youth.
With a career spanning over four decades, Mr Fynn’s photography has become an integral part of Ghana’s visual history, showcasing the beauty, diversity, and resilience of its people.
The opening of the exposition coincided with the launch of the Kownkwetsia Foundation, a non-governmental organisation Mr Fynn founded, with an objective to empowering the youth with professional skills including photography.
It also seeks to promote Ghanaian history, culture, and arts through documentary photography, education, community development, and economic development in Moree and its surrounding communities.
Briefing the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the exposition, Mr Fynn emphasised the critical role photography played in promoting the tourism industry and appealed to the authorities to reconsider their priorities and make photography an integral part of their strategies to sell the country.
Citing tourism destinations such as Dubai, he noted that people were usually allured to visit such places by their captivating pictures and videos.
He was of the conviction that the Moree community and other similar places of rich heritage and history could be transformed through tourism, with photography playing a central role.
He called for respect and recognition of photographers in Ghana due to their invaluable contributions across all sectors, particularly arts and tourism, citing the reverence of their counterparts in other parts of the world.
Mr Fynn made a strong case for the inclusion of photography in the education curriculum right from the basic school to hone the talent of the youth.
Mr Lamb, who was a member of the international design team for the Kakum National Park in 1993, underscored the importance of having the photography museum and culture centre.
He envisioned that the centre would become the photographic resource centre and archival repository of historic photos for Ghana.
Describing Mr Fynn as an iconic artist who holds the heritage phase of Ghana through photography, Mr Lamb entreated stakeholders, particularly the Ghana Tourism Authority, to support his projects to tell the Ghanaian story.
GNA