UNVEILING GHANA’S CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHER..YAANOM

When did you start the business of photography?

First and foremost, I’ve never had any interest in photography or thought about ever holding a camera. I was into desktop publishing back in the late 90’s when the “Communication Center” business crazily hit the street corners of Accra New Town, formerly Lagos Town.

In 2007, I realized that I needed to have a creative freedom over my graphic design works. That was when go into photography.

Did you acquire acknowledge in photography? If yes, where OR it's a gift.

No Academic education in the ARTs or Photography that I can boast of. But sometime in spring of 2010, I was able to convince James Chance of CHANCE MULTIMEDIA in Colorado to charge me for a full day shadowing him on the Job. So I showed up that day in his studio loft with my Canon 7D and kit lens with my list of questions on topics like ISO, Creative Devices, Shooting under low light and samples of pictures saved from the internet. Its one thing reading books and watching the entire tutorial Video you can; but to be in the presence of a well seasoned photojournalist gave me great Jump Start. I learnt a lot that day and eventually that boosted my confidence to go out there and take bad shots and learn from there. So it was actually James Chance that took that “ARMED & HUNGRY” shot at the end of the training session; that image with Yaanom holding the Camera in the air.

Prior to having my 1 day photography schooling, I was fortunate to serve under Geoffrey Olisa of BHF MAGAZINE for 8 months. Observing his creative process alone changed my whole mindset about Design & Photography instantly with noticeable improvement in my Design style from Day 1. One thing that he told me was, “Photoshop is the BABA (father) of all Design Software’s and if I can master it, soon, I will be doing everything with it.” So after been hooked on CORELDRAW for all these years; I now had to retrain my design senses with this new software with these “annoying boxes with eyes” called LAYERS. When you get rejected by JOHNS HOPKINS Computer Career Institute & ITT-Tech due to lack of finance and God gives you one of Africa’s Living Legends in pure Aesthetics and Design, you are more than favored! GEOFFREY OLISA simply “SHINED MY EYES in ARTS!”

What inspired or motivate you to achieve a great shoot?

What I realized early in this business was; you are only as good as your source(s) of inspiration. During my early days of photography, I began researching into the works of photography Legends like Richard Avedon, Michael Creagh, Steven Meisel and Annie Leibovitz, and one thing that got me hooked was their creative freedom. Eventually I surrounded myself with their works and I used to sit in front of my laptop late into the night staring at slide shows of their images for hours till I fell asleep. I called this my idea sowing days.

So whenever I am faced with shoots today; I just tell myself “GO CRAZY”, because you have all these great legends backing you…Just like the saying in the movie STAR WARS, “MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU”.

What is the secret for making work standout?

My biggest secret is that, I am never afraid of taking BAD SHOTS. So I am constantly out there trying new things that are out of the BOOK. I am ashamed to say that I hardly read Instructional Manuals. For me, I think they take away the fun from making Constructive Mistakes. I easily get bored with the Regular, OK and Perfect shot… And whenever possible, I’ll try something unpopular.

Do you have anybody you look up to in your line of business?

Nobody in particular, but I hope to achieve the sense of Design Acuity as my mentor GEORFFREY OLISA one day.

Is like you specialize more on advertisement, Fashion and concept, are you looking at doing more on other area soon? Like celebrities shoot, movies, wedding, etc

Once a photographer has mastered his/her camera, the rest is a matter of what he/she wants to be recognized for. YAANOM MULTIMEDIA is primarily a Creative Consultancy so our main area of focus is ADVERTISING, FASHION and CONCEPT GENERATION and there are still more sub-categories in these fields, so Specialization is the KEY word here. Most of the wedding and Engagement that I’ve shot so far were for relatives and close friends that I simply couldn’t turn down. YAANOM’s primary vision is to become the “go to” BRAND AUTHORITY.

Below are some of his work