Chief Executive of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Kwasi Agyeman during the weekend joined the members of the Ghana Photojournalists Network (GPNet) to celebrate this year’s World Photography Day at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra.
The annual event which is commemorated on 19th August of every year is to celebrate the art and practice of photography and recognize the hard work of photographers.
Under the theme; Understanding The Cloud, the network tasked its experience photojournalists to capture captivating images of the park to tell unique stories focusing on the aesthetic and recreational aspects of the place through images.
However, celebrating global photography day at Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park forms part of the network’s contribution to help market the refurbished tourist attraction to the world, especially on an occasion like this.
In the park, some of the visitors who came in groups include schools, churches and corporate bodies with both children and adults competing with each to take pictures around the fountain.
In his opening address, Mr Kwasi Agyeman said his outfit acknowledges the important crucial role photography plays in the promotion of tourism so when he received the invitation he considered it important to attend as far as the program will showcase the facility he was happy.
“We are trying to make sure that there is a partnership between the Ghana Photojournalists Network, G.T.A and all the other agencies under the tourism ministry so that when you shoot your photos and films, you can give us copies for us to use to promote Ghana,” said Mr Kwasi Agyeman.
He said they use pictures to promote Ghana on the international scene because when people see good pictures of tourism facilities they feel the appetite to visit the destination adding that they see photojournalists as partners in promoting tourism in Ghana.
Mr Kwasi Agyeman charged them to extend their focus to cover other tourist sites to tell beautiful stories about Ghana through their lenses.
On his part the Acting Director of Kwame Memorial Park, Mr Edward Quao said he was delighted the celebration at the park in a way will promote the facility.
Ghana Photojournalists Network is the first registered Photojournalists organisation in Ghana and is affiliated with the Ghana Journalists Association.
Building capacities of Photojournalists in Ghana to achieve high-quality standards in the field of photojournalism to enable them to contribute meaningfully to national development is the vision of the network.
Our membership is made up of both photo and video journalists working with private and public media houses across the country.
In Ghana, we celebrated our maiden world photography day on 19th August 2020 with an exhibition on COVID-19 at the forecourt of the Ministry of Information. The following year we marked the day with a tree planting exercise at James Town in collaboration with the Forestry Commission and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly in Accra. Last year we marked the day with a photography workshop in Accra.
Brief History of Photography
Two Frenchmen, Joseph Nicephore Niepce and Louis Daguerre developed the ‘’Daguerreotype,’ the first practical photographic process in the year 1837. On August 19, 1839, the French government acquired the patent from Louis Daguerre.
The French government also announced that the invention could significantly change human history, and truly photography has impacted the world beyond expectation.
