Carlos Idun-Tawiah

Carlos Idun-Tawiah (b. 1997) is a Ghanaian artist, photographer, and filmmaker whose work transforms personal and collective memory into powerful visual narratives.

Based in Accra and represented globally by Galería Alta, he has emerged as a defining voice in contemporary African photography, creating images that seamlessly blend fiction and nonfiction, past and present, memory and imagination to explore the profound beauty and complexity of African life.

Artistic Vision and Practice

Idun-Tawiah's practice is defined by a conceptually sophisticated approach to documentary photography that transcends mere image capture. Rather than documenting moments, he reimagines them-constructing cinematic visual narratives that probe deeper into meaning and emotional truth. His creative methodology is rooted in personal experience and cultural memory, enabling him to craft stories with profound authenticity and resonance.

Central to his artistic vision is an exploration of universal human themes-family, faith, joy, youth, community, aging, friendship, hope, and love-examined through the specific lens of African and Black experience. His photographs honor the multifaceted dimensions of African life while simultaneously challenging historical gaps in representation and documentation. In this sense, Idun-Tawiah functions as both visual artist and cultural activist, advancing crucial conversations about whose stories deserve preservation and celebration.

Major Works and Series

Sunday Special, draws from childhood memories of growing up in a Christian Ghanaian household. Through intimate exploration of family archives and evocative visual nostalgia, Idun-Tawiah captures the spiritual warmth and communal bonds that define Sundays in Accra, transforming quotidian rituals into meditations on belonging and faith. The series received the Contemporary African Photography Prize in 2023, recognizing its powerful contribution to contemporary photographic discourse.

Boys Will Always Be Boys subverts traditional masculine narratives by celebrating the tender, playful, and emotionally open moments of boyhood in Ghana. These portraits challenge reductive stereotypes while offering an alternative vision of male intimacy and connection, resonating far beyond the geographic specificity of his subject matter.

Hero, Father, Friend- his most celebrated series dedicated to his late father-extends this exploration into Black fatherhood as both personal and collective experience.

Weaving lived memory with imagined scenarios, Idun-Tawiah reconstructs the father-son relationship in all its complexity, capturing both the tangible and ephemeral dimensions of kinship. The series' warm, nostalgic tonality and emotionally layered compositions invite viewers into a profound meditation on love, loss, and the enduring legacies that shape identity. Recently honored with the prestigious Deloitte Photo Grant (2025), the award includes an exhibition at the Triennale di Milano opening on November 27, 2025 and the publication of a monograph, further cementing the work's significance within contemporary photographic practice.

Paris Photo 2025

Idun-Tawiah makes his Paris Photo debut at the Grand Palais (November 12-16) with the solo exhibition I'll Be Here to Remind You, presented by Galería Alta.

This presentation marks a pivotal moment in his international trajectory, affirming his position as a defining voice in contemporary African photography whose work advances crucial conversations about representation, memory, and the celebration of African life on the global stage.