Accra: Aperture 252 (Aperture Magazine, 252),Used

This fall, following acclaimed issues centered on Delhi, Mexico City, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and So Paulo, Aperture magazine presents Accra, an edition that considers the Ghanaian capital as a site of dynamic photographic voices and histories that connect visual culture in West Africa to the world. Accra is guest edited by the New Yorkbased artist Lyle Ashton Harris and the Accrabased photographer and educator Nii Obodai.This issue lays bare the current complexities around representation, not only through photography but also film, architecture, and spaces for gathering, says Harris, who lived in Accra and taught at New York Universitys Ghana campus for seven years. What does it mean to bring a multiplicity of identities into one sphere? In what ways do conflicting ideas rub up against each other?Ghana has been a home for compelling photography since the late nineteenth century, from the output of the hundredyearold Deo Gratias photo studio to the stylish midcentury visions of James Barnor. Aperture Issue #252 Accra features exclusive interviews with Zohra Opoku, whose textilebased works evoke mortality and resilience, and John Akomfrah, the celebrated filmmaker who throughout his career has dramatized ideas about heritage and belonging between Ghana and the UK, and who will represent Britain in the 2024 Venice Biennale. Photographs by the cover artist Carlos IdunTawiah, whose work is featured in a portfolio, will be presented by Aperture at the Armory Show in New York, September 710.Photography is a potent medium for situating history, says Obodai. Accra looks both to the archives that catalog Ghanas pastand the countrys central role in PanAfrican thought and political activismand to the visions of a new generation.