Few people photographed as many major events and notable figures in Ghana’s pre and post-colonial history as the late J.K. Bruce-Vanderpuije.

On 28 February 1948, he captured on camera the fatal shooting of three local ex-servicemen who were on a march to the seat of the British colonial government, protesting unpaid war allowances. Riots and further protests broke out in response to the shooting, and Bruce-Vanderpuije’s images were tendered as evidence in a commission of inquiry that was set up to investigate. The 1948 Accra riots, as they are now known, are said to have been a pivotal moment leading to the independence of Ghana and other African countries.

In the 1920s, as the official photographer of Achimota School (formerly known as Prince of Wales College and co-founded by the then Gold Coast governor Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg) he had captured images of a very young Kwame Nkrumah, who would later become the first president of the newly independent Ghana. On 6 March 1957, the day independence became a reality, Bruce-Vanderpuije was at the old polo grounds (now Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum), capturing the moment Nkrumah famously proclaimed, “…at long last, the battle has ended… Ghana, your beloved country, is free forever.”

“He was probably the only person to take certain photographs in [Ghana’s] history at a certain time,” says Kate Aku Tamakloe, his granddaughter and manager of the century-old photo studio he founded. There might have been other photographers during Nkrumah’s landmark 1957 pronouncement, she adds, “but he was right in front.”

“That picture,” she added, referring to the print of Nkrumah on a podium flanked by members of the Gold Coast cabinet at the entrance of the Deo Gratias studio. “We [at the studio] have several of them. It’s [an image that is] out there but [his version] is unique to him.”

Referred to as the forgotten forefather of 20th-century African photography, James Kobla Bruce-Vanderpuije was born in Jamestown (a suburb of Ghana’s capital city, Accra) on 7 March 1899 to Emmanuel Vanderpuije, who worked in the shipping industry, and Eleanor Afua Bruce of the Otublohum royal family.

He took up photography as a hobby while at school. Later, he spent three years learning from photographer J.A.C Holm, and also worked briefly with the Accra Metropolitan Authority (then known as Accra Town Council.) In 1922, aged 23, he established the Deo Gratias Photo Studio in Jamestown, now said to be the oldest operational photography studio in West Africa.

Under his helm, the studio was a hub of activity with diplomats, elites, and traditional and community leaders all trooping in to have their portraits taken. The studio has an archive of more than 50,000 images— taken over a span of seven decades—of figures ranging from Nkrumah to the late Ghanaian politician J.B. Danquah and the late British Queen Elizabeth II.

Around a decade ago, Tamakloe (who now runs Deo Gratias studio) set out on a journey to “categorise”, she says, the images in the portfolio as a way to make it easier to process requests she was receiving for photographs. She grouped images based on themes including “families,” “weddings,” “funerals,” and “people wearing [specific] Kente design”. This was done with the assistance of her now visually impaired 89-year-old father Isaac Hudson Bruce-Vanderpuije (J.K’s son, and the person who first inherited the space). Isaac shared stories about some of the pictures and helped to identify their subjects.

Tamakloe has also worked hard to preserve the images, a journey that itself has included some bumps in the road, including losing the hard drive after beginning the process of digitising the archive, an experience Tamakloe says was “very depressing after having done so much.” She says, however, that she is “enjoying that the end is not yet here because I’m still discovering” images—citing recent examples such as a photograph of Seth Anthony, the first African commissioned as an officer of the British Army, and his family in the 1940s. It was one of Anthony’s daughters, who visited the studio in 2016, that identified him in the photograph.

Prints of images from the archive, including the shot of Seth Anthony, were featured in a group presentation by Efie Gallery at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London this past October. On 12 January 2024, Unveiling the Shadows of the Past: J.K Bruce-Vanderpuije – The Hidden Icon of Photography, the first gallery show to be dedicated to Bruce-Vanderpuije’s work, will be on view at the Efie Gallery in Dubai. Curated by Ethiopian photographer Aida Muluneh, it will showcase more than 40 previously unseen black-and-white images by Bruce-Vanderpuije, depicting life in Ghana in the 1920s and 30s and offering insight into the formation of an independent, 20th-century Ghanian social and political identity as the country prepared to liberate itself from colonial rule.

“I am really looking forward to having interactions with people who will see [the images] for the first time—not just the art or photo lovers but also historians,” says Tamakloe of the upcoming exhibition. “I have always said I want to tell the Ghanaian story.”

A wedding photographer in Japan has died after he fell from the roof of a restaurant while photographing a couple as they prepared for their wedding.

The 26-year-old was at the Kitano Club in Kobe City on the morning of November 26 when he fell from the third floor, a distance of 30 feet (nine meters). He suffered a blow to the head and was transferred to a local hospital where he died two weeks later on December 9.

According to local police who held a press conference, the cause of death was septic shock brought on by the injury to his head.

The man was reportedly taking photos of the couple on the roof of the venue at a pre-wedding event when he stepped back and fell.

The rooftop offers a spectacular view across Kobe City and has a lawn on top of it but there was no fence in the area he fell. Police are now investigating whether the photographer’s death was due to professional negligence.

The Kitano Club is a popular wedding venue, the grass lawn elevating couples above the skyline allowing for spectacular photos of the bride and groom but serious questions will have to be answered as to how this happened.

In 2015, wedding photographer Gordon Jack passed away at the wedding rehearsal of tennis superstar Andy Murray.

Initially, it was reported he had fallen and had a freak accident but it was later revealed he had actually suffered a heart attack which is what caused him to fall.

The Perils of Being a Photographer

Wedding photography can be hazardous: there are a lot of moving parts and photographers can find themselves in unfamiliar locations, walking backward, and having to avoid random objects and small children.

Most professionals will have insurance to cover themselves in case anything goes wrong.

Earlier this year, PetaPixel interviewed Robyn Lindemann, an elite wedding photographer from Chicago who was forced to close her business after a rare eye disease caused her to go blind and she lost almost all of her peripheral vision.

“I was horribly embarrassed when I missed the outreach of a common handshake, bumped into little flower girls, or humiliatingly tripped over something that was outside my visual field range,” she said.

Rescued from a closed studio in 1999, The Harry Jacobs photographic archive is one of Lambeth Archives’ many treasures.

Finding history

Hand-tinted photo showing Harry Jacobs’ unchanging studio backdrop

The Jacobs photographic archive – over 5,000 rescued portrait pictures – is available for everyone to view at Lambeth Archives. Local people visit in search of the past, finding photographs of parents, friends, neighbours and relations – and sometimes even themselves.

Local institution

Jacobs’ photos capture the personal and domestic side of the Windrush Generation. Jacobs started taking pictures of Jamaican families in their front rooms and became the portrait photographer of choice for the local Black community for more than 35 years – so much so that when Jamaican Prime Minister, Hugh Shearer visited Brixton in 1969, Harry was called to record the occasion.

The Harry Jacobs Story

Two years before the Windrush voyage, young Eastender Harry Jacobs returned from the Second World War: “I’d never done photography before, but I started with a 35mm Leica camera. Going out ‘on the knocker’ I used to explain what I was doing and say, “I don’t want to bother old people; are there any families with children on the street?” and she’d say “Oh, Mrs so-and-so opposite, Mary at no. 24 and so on”. I‘d knock, arrange to go back in the evening, and the whole family would be in their best clothes in the front room.“

Posing for portraits

After 1962, when Harry Jacobs opened his own studio at 152 Landor Road, Stockwell, posing for a portrait became a rite of passage for generations of local people. “I became a bit of an institution for the black community in Brixton. The funny thing was people used to insist it was a scene from their home country. Jamaicans would say it was Hope Gardens, ‘Oh! The waterfall was just there; and the trees; it reminds me of home’. I didn’t use many props; there was the famous basket of flowers, the raffia chair and the Bakelite telephone; for children there was a tricycle and a plastic parrot; and every Christmas the tinsel Christmas tree came out.”

Rescuing the pictures

When Lambeth Archives staff arrived at the closed studio in 1999 to rescue the contents, they were confronted by a montage of over 2,000 photographs covering the shop and studio walls: proud faces and special moments; in work uniforms and party frocks, displaying new hairstyles and babies, new suits and swimsuits, offering wedding toasts and eating funeral meats.”

Lambeth Archives opens in Brixton

Pet rescue is near and dear to my heart, and one of my favorite ways to give back.

For the past three years, I’ve partnered with a central Florida rescue organization – Happy Trails Animal Rescue – creating an annual calendar featuring dogs they’ve adopted out or supported through their numerous community outreach programs.

Happy Trails focuses on dogs who need some additional support to be happy, content family members. They might be nervous around new people or situations, find other dogs frightening, need help channeling their energy, have disabilities like deafness or blindness, or simply do best with some enrichment. Happy Trails meets them where they are to help them be their best selves – along with running a much-needed pet food pantry.

More info: happytrailsanimalrescue.com

Our next Big Shot underwater photography competition starts now – send us your best cephalopod pictures by 11 February 2024 for the chance to win an Aggressor Adventures liveaboard trip to the Egyptian Red Sea

Our Big Shot Megafauna and Big Shot Kaleidoscope underwater photography competitions have been a great success, with some amazingly beautiful images published in our two most recent print magazines.

For the Spring 2024 issue of DIVE, we’re asking you to send us your best shots of cephalopods – octopus, cuttlefish, squids and nautilus. The best pictures will be printed in the magazine, with the overall winner rewarded with a seven-night trip on board the Red Sea Aggressor IV (worth US$2,699) courtesy of Aggressor Adventures.

There are many different species of cephalopod, many of which make easy subjects for photography – but cephalopods are also highly intelligent, so capturing the perfect shot means capturing some of the animal’s personality as much as it does its interesting features.

To enter the competition, submit up to ten of your best shots – plus, you also need to make sure that your entries are uploaded to either Instagram, Facebook or X with the tags and hashtags as listed in the ‘How to enter’ box below.

The deadline for entries is midnight (GMT) on Sunday, 11 February 2024.

The overall winner of the competition will win a free place for one person for seven nights diving onboard the Red Sea Aggressor IV (flights not included).