Nii Obodai | Of Natural Magic
In his commission for ‘Surroundings’ Ghanaian artist photographer Nii Obodai has been inspired by the waterways of the East Riding in Yorkshire, in particular the Gypsey Race, Spurn Point, Tophill Low and Pocklington Canal. During his residency with Invisible Dust he has explored the way people have interacted with, exploited, controlled or lived alongside water and is investigating themes of climate change and landscape in the East Riding region. His new body of work questions the extremes to which we have pushed our environment and will use photographs, sound and installation to represent the liquid landscapes that connect and intersect the lives and ecology of the region.
Nii uses an 8 x 10 large format Deardorff camera, shooting in black and white, which allows him to slow down the process of photography and connect more with the waterways that he is capturing. His working process has also been highly collaborative, and throughout the project he has been in consultation with various individuals, all of whose work focuses on or with ideas of waterways or biodiversity. Their knowledge and diverse approaches to the topic have fed into Nii’s own thought process and the development of his work.
Listen to Nii Obodai: Finding the image on BBC World Service