<\/p>\n
Cape Town \u2013 The largest photography library in Africa has opened in Ghana\u2019s capital, Accra.<\/p>\n
Founded by Ghanaian photographer and film-maker Paul Ninson, the Dikan Center houses more than 30 000 books he has collected. <\/p>\n
Reportedly, the first of its kind in Africa, a photo studio and classrooms provide space for workshops while a fellowship programme is aimed at African documentarians and visual artists. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, an exhibition space will host regular shows, the first of which was Ahennie, a series by the late Ghanaian documentary photographer Emmanuel Bobbie, also known as Bob Pixel.<\/p>\n
The Dikan Centre was started after Brandon Stanton, author of the book Humans of New York, who began the crowdfunding campaign that helped to establish the centre. <\/p>\n
According to Humans of New York, Paul had a child at a young age, and taught himself photography to support his daughter. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere were few resources available to him. As Paul explained, \u2018It was hard for me to find a single photography book in Ghana\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cPaul was also frustrated that most photojournalism in Africa was being done by foreign journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Paul was given the opportunity to study in America for a year, he began collecting photography books to bring home with him\u2014so others would have something to study. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis quickly evolved into a spiritual mission of sorts. He networked with booksellers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe received donations from private galleries and collectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s now managed to collect over 30 000 photography books \u2013 enough to build the largest photo library in Africa. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhich is exactly what he intends to do. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we are currently fundraising to help him. <\/p>\n
\u201cPaul has assisted me several times over the past two years, and we\u2019ve become very close.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the first things I noticed is that he takes his religion very seriously. <\/p>\n
\u201cOne of his core beliefs, which I\u2019ve heard him say over and over, is: \u2018Givers never lack\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cPaul was struggling hard in America. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut no matter what I gave him \u2014 he\u2019d give much of it away. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d use the money to buy books for the library. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d send it to people back in Ghana. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe set up a community fridge in Brooklyn and kept it stocked.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul always felt commanded to pass along whatever he was given. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo quote another of his favourite sayings: \u2018We must be channels of blessing.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the kind of person that we\u2019re investing in with our fund-raiser. <\/p>\n
\u201cPaul is going to help untold numbers of people with his library, because that\u2019s what he cares about more than anything else in life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very grateful for his friendship, and the example he\u2019s provided me over the past two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d love nothing more than if we could be a \u2018channel of blessing\u2019 for him\u2014so that he can continue to help others. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve raised $750 000 so far for Dikan Centre. <\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to everyone who\u2019s contributed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanton attended attended the opening with Ninson, whom he met while living in New York, citing The Guardian.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumans of New York began as a photography project in 2010. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe initial goal was to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street, and create an exhaustive catalogue of the city\u2019s inhabitants,\u201d Stanton writes on the Humans of New York website.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cape Town \u2013 The largest photography library in Africa has opened in Ghana\u2019s capital, Accra. Founded by Ghanaian photographer and film-maker Paul Ninson, the Dikan Center houses more than 30 000 books he has collected. Reportedly, the first of its kind in Africa, a photo studio and classrooms provide space for workshops while a fellowship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1267931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1267931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1267931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1267931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1267931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}