It's
an unseasonably warm Saturday, and I'm almost breaking out in cold sweat as I
totter up a hilly street to meet Miguel Ammah.
I'd
like to think of it as a one up for all the times an interviewee has kept an
interviewer waiting by pretending that being late was my plan all along. But no, I have tedious weekend engineering
works on the London underground to thank for my tardiness.
'You're
late,' Miguel greets me tersely, and the affectionate 'hating on' London
transport I'd imagined us doing whimpers and dies quickly. To be fair, he lives
in Glasgow, and from the look of things he apparently hasn't had any cause for
complaint where the underground is concerned. I have an apology ready, but
almost immediately, he leans over and folds me into a bear hug, his face
creasing into a warm smile.
Whew.
Alright, still.
 |
| Face in Motion - Miguel |
We
meet on the set of his latest photo shoot in Finsbury Park, and the bright day
that has allowed this to take place in the open, airy park has him waxing lyrical
about natural lighting and 'sunny London.' (He doesn't agree later on when I
remark on the slight chill in the air, and I have to remind him somewhat tartly
that it's because he is down from Glasgow, which, let's face it, is hardly
sunny California.)
I am
to direct the shoot. 'I have faith in your creativity,' he tells me with a twinkling
certainty in his voice, and for five seconds I permit myself a small fantasy
where I wonder when Mario Testino is going to make that call for my services.
Delusion is a healthy habit, I always say.
The
closest I've come to a professional photo shoot is a few dodgy poses at the
Trocadero in Paris, simulating variously disastrous kissing-the-Eiffel Tower shots.
But soon, I find myself helping with nipping and tucking the model, Claudia,
into a cleverly pinned Kente cloth.
She
is a British Ghanaian beauty, with dark, luminous skin glowing from the
generous amount of baby oil lathered on her body. But she also radiates an
attractive inner charm that is borne of her engaging personality, winning smile
and spontaneous energetic movements (she occasionally breaks into a dance
routine between takes, in step with the hiplife songs that are playing in the
background). Miguel bobs his head a few times when the music catches him, and
I’m reminded of the Christmas parties from years ago when we were young and he
would outdo every other child on the dance floor with his dance skills while
the rest of us looked on, a mixture of admiration and envy etched on our faces.
So later when he tells me, ‘I love dancing,’ I rearrange my face into a picture
of innocence, but my voice is teasingly sarcastic, ‘Oh, that’s news to me!’
Miguel
is looking for something from Claudia. 'A unique allure; a magic, pivotal
moment that defines a distinct image and makes me fall in love through the lens
of the camera.' It is a subject he comes back to often, this indescribable
feeling of falling in love each time he is behind the camera, with a
rejuvenating vividity that continues to drive his passion for doing something
he really loves. He has an enduring image in his head of real passion at work
from his days as a school boy in Ridge Church School in Accra. He remembers
converging with an enthusiastic crowd of students looking on with raw
admiration as fellow student, Kawann ‘Ohene’ Shockley, six years his senior and
now a hip-hop and jazz fusion musician, rapped and beat boxed through various
hip-hop hits of the day. ‘I often questioned back then what drove a person to
continually do what they love. Now I know.’
There
is an undercurrent of steely determination behind his gentle approach with
Claudia. Having had some experience with modelling himself, he channels that
into creating a comfortable atmosphere for her. He has a face that dissolves
easily into laughter, a silly sound that tickles those around him, so how she
manages to hold the poker-faced poses is beyond me. He is jokey on set, yet
ruthless in wringing the best out of everyone, and the feeling of wanting to
give it unreservedly slowly creeps in on us all. Has he had specific moments in
his life that drive this resilience?
‘Many,’
he laughs. ‘I was born and raised in a slum in Accra called Ayalolo. It was a
tough neighbourhood that injected you with a never-back-down attitude to life,
but it was also culturally driven. There was always something happening.’ So he
has learned to have an appreciation for colour and diversity in a world that is
bursting at the seams with different multicultural offerings from all corners.
All the better for him, as his curiosity has since taken him to Denmark as an
AFS cultural ambassador and, later, Baraboo in Wisconsin (‘another cultural
adventure’), which soon became the scene of his blinding moment of clarity, not
so much on a Damascene scale as a quiet realisation in the home of his friend
and muse, Cari Ekes Buchanan, whom he credits with setting him on his journey
as a photographer. ‘She was mesmerising. The manner and zeal with which she
would hang pictures she had taken on her wall, and the satisfied look on her
face when she sat back to admire them was captivating.’
A
conversion was taking place after all. Before this trip Miguel’s dream was to
be a 3D animation artist after studying Communication Design at Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology, but his friendship with Cari struck a chord
that soon became a full-blown orchestra.
He
bought a small camera, (‘a small Sony Cyber-shot camera from Walmart!’) and has
never looked back since. Small start, big dreams.
These
days it is he who is on the other side of the camera, capturing shots with a
confidence that comes from the wealth of experience he has since gathered. But
he often goes back to another pivotal moment that set him decisively on his
path once he embraced photography. He returned to Ghana from Wisconsin armed
with a camera, a new dream…and a disconcerting ‘what next?’
‘I
wasn’t really certain yet which aspect of photography I wanted to specialise
in…’ But his good friend and established photographer, James Armah, was about
to hand the uncertain Miguel a massive shot in the arm: an invitation to assist
him on a shoot for Aya Morrison Clothing at a beach in Tema. And right there on
home territory, Miguel knew the decision he had made in Wisconsin was not a
fad. It had come to stay.
He
bought his second camera, a Canon 400d, and christened it The Caribear (no
prizes for guessing where the name came from), and was soon understudying
Dennis Dartey. ‘I like to call him The King of Light for his exceptional use of
lighting in photography,’ he smiles.
His
love and zest for life has taken him places - Norway, Sweden, Holland, Belgium
and Germany - but he can’t stop coming back to his first experience of Paris in
November 2011 when he got the opportunity to participate in Paris Photo, an
international art fair that brings photographers from all over the world. It
had always been a dream of his to visit Paris, and see some of the historic art
and iconic buildings he had heard of his entire life.
On
the Mona Lisa: ‘I was disappointed by how incredibly small the painting was. I
thought it would be much bigger.’ (I laugh at the memory of my own
disappointment on first seeing it at the Musée du Louvre, and the awe I felt
that it also happened to be opposite a large painting of Jesus at the wedding
in Cana that almost dwarfed the wall it was on.)
On
the Sacré Coeur basilica: ‘I would sit on the stairs leading up to it and gaze
in wonder at the artistic beauty of Paris. I wanted to live there forever. Do
you know that feeling?’
Mais oui,
only too well. Paris is a city full of beautiful memories and desire; sometimes
that persistent child that won’t stop
tugging until it’s got your rapt attention, other times the warmth that wraps
itself around you until you can’t remember a time when it hadn’t existed, and always the seductress that draws you in and teases
with feather light touches. Little things like seeing an ancient man playing
his accordion on the métro, the smell
of freshly baked baguettes and pain
viennois, the endlessly fascinating things your eyes cannot wait to take
in…indeed, it doesn’t take that long before they slip noiselessly into your
heart and stay. Miguel is confident that one day another door will open and he
will walk into a second amour fou
with the French capital.
His
dreams are all coming true with the dawning of each day. He is working on his
website and a fashion photography project that showcases the blossoming
Ghanaian fashion culture in the UK. He finds inspiration in the works of Joel
Grimes, Jean Paul Goude and Annie Leibovitz, and has a growing fan base, from
the people he’s worked with - including
Trigmatic, Raquel, Jennifer Koranteng, Bubushiiky, Makafui Ninkcabs – to a
wider audience who have an appreciation for photographic art in all its forms.
But he is always hopeful that the best is yet to come.
So I
ask him my last question: who would be his dream person to photograph?
‘My
mother,’ he says without hesitation. ‘Since I started out in earnest, I haven’t
had a chance to have a photo shoot with her.’
As
we finish with the day’s proceedings, I think what a proud mother she would be.
The
photographic medium will never cease to intrigue us; from mindless shots borne
of widespread social media use in a digital age where anything possible, to
arresting images over the course of the 173 years since Louis Daguerre’s
invention, it seems we are more preoccupied than ever with seeing. And like great photographers whose works have captured
attention and never let go, Miguel wants to leave a legacy. ‘I don’t want my
works to be forgotten. I hope in years to come they will be the propelling
force behind someone’s decision to take up this beautiful craft.’
Mama’s
boy has done good. Miguel has come home at last to his real passion.
And
that’s a wrap.
