Hey there! My name is Kofi Nana Oduro Iddrisu (my friends call me Idris) and I am the founder of Archive Africa. I was born and raised in North-West London, before moving to Ghana with my family when I was around twelve years old. I started Archive Africa to increase the representation of African photographers on the continent and in the Diaspora, and to showcase analog media in Africa - hence, why I primarily accept submissions taken in film.

The idea behind Archive Africa is to exist as a conceptual library or virtual gallery where the African narrative is put at the forefront. I have published pictures from almost every single African country (although I am still waiting on a submission from Comoros), and I curate pictures from photographers of all skill levels. My goal is to blur the lines between professional and amateur photography in order to increase access, because so many people find film photography to be daunting - but anyone can do it if they put in the effort.

Photographs by Esperanza Don Obilor

A narrative which I tumbled onto quite recently was about the lives of African diasporas in Mexico. A photographer called Darryl Richarson (check out his work) informed me that there are around 1.4 million people living in Mexico who identify themselves as African, and yet the Mexican government only started including people of African descent in the national census in 2015. In 2020, for the first time “Black” will feature as a category in the national census. Hopefully, Mexico begins to take more measures towards recognizing the African Diaspora in Mexico.

Some of my favourite images for Archive Africa thus far have to be the pictures which a good friend of mine, Esperanza Don Obilor, took of a sunset in Ghana. These pictures convey the summery feeling of just lazing on a Ghanaian beach perfectly. The summer series which I curated from Micaiah Carter’s photography is another favourite - the way he manages to photograph Black skin is unparalleled. Lastly, the pictures taken by legendary Burkinabe photographer Sanlé Sory are so timeless - he captures youth culture in the 1970’s so vividly I feel like I was there.