Carlos Idun-Tawiah Ghanaian, b. 18/5/1997
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81.3 x 81.3 cm / 32 x 32 in
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In the soft glow of intimate interior space, three figures converge around a shared text, their faces illuminated by the warm light that seems to emanate from the pages themselves.
This photograph captures a moment suspended between knowledge and discovery, between the written word and lived understanding. The formal attire worn by each person suggests intentionality, perhaps ceremony or significance beyond the casual.
Yet there is nothing ceremonial about the genuine warmth radiating from their expressions, the unbridled joy that plays across their features as they engage with whatever words hold their collective attention.
The black and white composition strips away distraction, forcing the viewer into an almost archaeological relationship with the image. Every detail becomes legible: the texture of fabric, the geometry of hands, the precise angle of focused gazes.
The photograph speaks to the profound democracy of literacy, to the shared human hunger for meaning that transcends individual circumstance. There is a quiet dignity in the scene, an assertion that the act of reading together, of bearing witness to narrative or instruction or revelation alongside others, constitutes a fundamental form of belonging.
The title itself insists upon interpretation. What is written? What must be written? What remains to be written? The photograph offers no answers but instead poses these questions through the intensity of attention captured in this single frame.
In Accra, in 2024, in this unlit room where only the text provides illumination, something sacred passes between these three souls engaged in the ancient ritual of gathering to understand.
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