Jamestown Ghana Travel Diary: A Street Photography Experience

Diary

This is one of the trips that hit me hard.

The Ghana trip began with a shocking news. “Your Visa valid day is one day later than your flight arrival, I am sorry we cannot let you get on board”. My mind blanked for 10 minutes but I have to think of a solution. Flashed back the 4 vaccines we took at the health department, the Visa application process. We cancelled our flight, booked another one and went home to catch our flight next day. The flip side is I can still reconsider what cameras and lenses to bring!

I packed 20 rolls of film and extra 5 rolls for my wife, some Kodak Portra 160 and 400, I only carry them when I travel and with some Kodak E100 that I still have in my freezer. She brought her Klasse S and I got quite a few items. The Leica MP, Leica M11-P. For lenses I have the Hologon 16mm f/8, Leica Summilux 24mm f/1.4 ASPH, Zeiss Biogon-C 35mm f/2.8 ZM, Leica Summilux 35mm f/1.4 Pre-FLE ASPH and Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4 ASPH. I ended up using all of them! Devlin inspired me to get the Wotancraft Easypack 15L, with all the camera dividers, its so good to layout what I carries and easy to organize my stuffs.

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People yelling and speaking loudly. I am now at the heart of city Accra, joined a local tour and explored Jamestown. It’s a densely populated fishing area that developed back in the 17th century around James Fort. In Jamestown, the British built James Fort in 1673, and the Dutch established their fort, Crevecoeur, in 1649. There are two distinct areas, the Dutch and British. Without even saying which is which, I can already tell which area we are located. One is more organized, the other one is less so.

Our walk was around 2.5 hours but it took me forever to adapt to the pace and culture. There is so much happening there. I was staying alert all the time and I was testing how local reacts to cameras. It wasn‘t the usual me that can easily switch my mind and start capturing photos and engaging with people. There is definitely a barrier that I have to find way to ease. So I began with a roll of Kodak Kodacolor 200 which I wanted to try and see how I like it. What I notice is that this new film has a warmer, less resolution but colour pops out easily to bring out this palette rich place, it’s pleasant to use.

Jamestown reminds me of Hong Kong in some way, people are quite sensitive with our presence there. It shocked me in both ways, as we navigating through alleys inside the heart of the living area. We saw kids playing and I asked for photos, they are such natural posers and their smiles melted my heart. What struck me hard was learning the history of this place, the slave houses and the colonial past. But the people there are so nice and genuine.

We always heard people speaking to us, our tour guide said they were giving us different names as a cultural tradition. And this family even grabbed everyone and let me take them a family photo!

Shooting that day with Kodak Portra 400 and Kodacolor 200 struggles a little when we are in the shade and it was an overcast day. I was with the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 ZM all the time, with f/1.4 will be better in such lighting condition. I find the Zeiss really good in terms of sharpness, rich contrast and it is a lens that I will keep considering carrying around with me.

Finally we are at the bay where all the boats embark here. Locals are still using the traditional wooden handmade fishing boat. Each has its own name painted on it. They repair when its worn instead of getting rid of it. We checked out where they smoke the fish, it smells like Japanese Katsuobushi.

This place is so colourful and easy to compose, 35mm is definitely a better choice for documentary kind of street photography. It’s so different to any places I have ever been. It’s definitely a cultural shock to me and I need extra time to react to the environment.