J. T. Ocansey, Setting the Fashion Trends for Women, n.d. Archival contact sheet photographed during dissertation fieldwork at the Photo Library, Information Services Department (ISD), Accra, Ghana, 2024. Courtesy of the Photo Library, Information Services Department (ISD), Accra.
A Fashion Sensibility:
Clothing and the Politics of Memory
Through Ghanaian Photography,
1950s—Present
This research project examines the production and circulation of fashion photography in Ghana
from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Drawing upon archival research and ethnographic methods, including interviews, oral histories, and observations conducted in Ghana and the United States, it explores the relationship between fashion and photography within changing social, cultural, and political contexts.
Through the study of modern and contemporary Ghanaian photographic practices,
the project considers how photographs have documented and shaped histories of dress, identity, collective memory,
and modernity, while contributing to broader conversations about African photography archives,
their preservation, and their significance for the study of African art.
