Between Sand and Water - Sunken Lands

‘Between Sand & Water' is an ongoing long-term photo project that highlights the effects of climate change, and a community's resilience along the coast of Ada Foah, a fishing town based on the Western side of the Volta Delta, on Ghana’s coast where the Volta River meets the Atlantic ocean. The area is home to important mangroves and other aquatic cultures which the communities depend on. Over the years, shoreline erosion and flooding have increased the damages to homes and infrastructure and general way of life.

“Between Sand & Water: Sunken Lands” is the next chapter of the project which explores the materiality and uses of photography, exploring alternate printmaking through serigraphy as means for telling climate stories.

This approach came to light when Ofoe Amegavie was exploring his own family’s history and the destruction of his grandfather’s home as a result of coastal erosion on the shores of Ada.

Through old family photo albums, stories told by his father, and his own explorations, Ofoe seeks to connect the past and the present of the thriving Port town, Ada.

The work presented is an ‘Abala’, the local name for a canopy. An Abala is a communal space where fisher-folks sit under to mend their broken nets and engage in various conversations concerning their work around the Volta River and the Ocean (e.g how the sea erodes the land from one place, redeposits it elsewhere which blocks canoe paths)

The process involved Ofoe stitching together over 30 aerial shots covering over 5km from Azizakpe Island to Ada Foah. This image was then divided into 20 individual 46.8" x 33.1" negative screens which are collaged serigraphs and then printed on up cycled bedsheets. Ofoe concluded his exploration by hand-stitching prints of immemorial portraits from his family archives unto the Abala - photographs taken in a community that no longer exists due to coastal erosion thus appear on a map of today’s Ada Foah.

Ofoe’s hope is that - just as the original Abala brings together people - his Abala inspires conversations of community members across generations as well as outsiders interested in the history, present and future of this coastal community.