Church on the Greenwich Meridian

A Photograph by Edem J. Tamakloe

In the first place, consider a man on the rightmost edge of the photograph. Both the top of his head and his arms are not visible. The wrinkles in his short-sleeved shirt indicates he is likely holding both hands behind him, stiffening his muscles to awaken a sense of observation. There’s a flow of people. By a sleight of perception, the photograph registers the presence of people from the sides—two women, one with a hand akimbo, another with a hand over her mouth—and shows an unwalked space between the pedestrians. The posture of the stationary man appears as rigid in form as the slender beams resting against the edge of the car park, which is to say he might be weighing his intents.

— Emmanuel Iduma

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“Photography is a medium of study and documentation.”

I took this photo at the Greenwich Meridian Church in Tema, Ghana. 

The church is a significant landmark in the city's central business district, often being used for functions beyond its primary purpose as a place of worship. 

On this day, it was in use as a Ghana National ID Card application centre. This image is part of a photo-series I made with my phone, while waiting in the queue on that overcast Saturday morning.

I was drawn to the juxtaposition of the large, rigid pattern of apertures in the breeze blocks with the texture of tiny grey pebbles in the terrazzo on the building’s façade. 

This static montage contrasted intriguingly with the fluid movement of people pacing up and down the length of the church yard, as they went through the stages of the application process.

It is a commentary on human relationship with buildings. Our daily lives are ordered about, within, and in between them; yet they fade into the background, silently bearing witness to the noise and haste of it all.

For me, photography is a medium of study and documentation. It gives me the opportunity to draw people's attention to the often overlooked characteristics of the spaces we inhabit, by representing these in a different light.

— Edem J. Tamakloe

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About Edem J. Tamakloe

Edem J. Tamakloe is an architect and architecture photographer based in Ghana. “In my photography practice, I document everyday spaces and places as a study of the intangibles of light, space, and materiality largely through black and white photos,” he says. His work has been published in the Architectural Digest and Metropolis Magazine. See more on his website, and on Instagram. See other images in the series here.

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Last Week — “Tsy Miroro” by Henitsoa Rafalia

This picture was taken in Tulear, Madagascar in March 2021, with an iPhone 5s smartphone from the upstairs window of a nightclub. The scene was there, I just had to immortalize it by taking care of the framing.

Read more.

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SUPPORT TENDER PHOTO

This is the 69th edition of this publication, which also read on web (best for viewing images), and via the Substack iOS/Android apps.

Every Wednesday I feature one photograph and the photographer who took it: you’d read a short caption from me, and a statement from the photographer. And every Saturday I publish a lengthier engagement with photography, such as the recently concluded CORRESPONDENCES. Between June 3–July 29, I’m writing a series of micro-essays in response to sequences of photographs previously featured on the newsletter.

Photographers can now submit their work for consideration.

My hope is to engage with early to mid-career African photographers, and to create a platform in which photographers lead the cataloguing and criticism of their work.

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