The Renaissance Society at Deo Gratias Photo Studio

The sun hung high over Jamestown, casting sharp shadows across  streets of Accra's oldest district. At about 12:40pm on January 30, 2025, a group of 19 visitors filed through the unassuming entrance of Deo Gratias Photo Studio, their arrival was announced.

Leading them was Myriam Ben Salah, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Chicago's Renaissance Society. Known for her discerning eye and commitment to fostering meaningful artistic exchange, Ben Salah had brought her group to this particular threshold seeking something rare, not the spectacle of the new, but the resonance of memory itself.

Photo of The Renaissance Society Group with Mrs. Kate Tamakloe (In the Middle)

They were greeted by Kate Tamakloe, granddaughter of the studio's founder, whose presence carried the quiet authority of someone entrusted with a nation's visual soul . The Renaissance Society group moved slowly, instinctively, as though traversing sacred ground. For an institution dedicated to contemporary art and commissioned projects, there was something profound about standing in a space where photography itself had once been a revolutionary act. Ben Salah leaned closer to one of the images, her curiosity palpable. A curator who had shaped exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo and the Hammer Museum, who had recently been selected to curate the French Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, she recognized something essential in this modest studio . Here was not merely a museum or a business, but an ongoing act of cultural preservation spanning three generations.

As the afternoon shadows lengthened toward 2:00pm, Ben Salah's group prepared to depart. There had been no formal presentations, no speeches, only the intimate exchange of stories and the shared recognition that they had witnessed something extraordinary.

Thank you for visiting the Deo Gratias Studio!