Art, unity and family keep our spirit strong:
Family Portrait of Susan’s family
I would like to share a group of family portrait captured by me for Susan. Unquestionably, images play an important and effective role in passing information. The emotion, the composition, the objects, the colour and the light & shadow construct the picture. One picture can tell a lot. That’s the reason why I am so attracted by photography.
It was such a pleasure for me to shoot this group of portraits of Susan’s family in September 2019. Susan’s family is consisted of herself, her husband Sackey, and their lovely children. They currently live in Australia. Susan is from Australia, and Sackey is from Ghana in West Africa. Both of them are contemporary dancers, which is why they met and fell in love with each other.
Susan told me that Sackey chose to settle down in Australia for marrying her - he has not been home for six years. It was difficult at a time for her because sometimes she can’t understand some of the nuances that make Sackey who he is; however, they’ve chosen to created a family and community with the value of not only the enjoyment of life but also the unity of global humanity.
This family composition conveys the idea that love between human beings is something more powerful than cultural and racial differences.
The happiness, creative, and harmonious life moment created by Susan’s family is a small reflection of the world nowadays, where internationalisation could bring people from different families, countries, and cultures together. From this, the idea of the sense of belonging and global humanity is revealed from the bond between human beings. It reminds us of the essential statue of human beings: we had been developed and will continue to develop together as a whole.
The below is the interview (selected) between me and Susan
How do you enjoy living with someone from a totally different culture?
Well that's interesting. I think when you marry into a family you become part of a community but marrying someone from another country and then they move to your country - there is no community or family with them. So really, I have married an individual who is now separated from his community. This is very difficult at times - it's hard for me to understand some of the nuances that make him who he is and it is lonely for our family without knowing grandparents and uncles and aunts.
However, it is also an opportunity to make a new family and a new community. We really enjoy meeting other families who are similar to ours, live music and festivals which focus on he values of our family - a global humanity, enjoyment of life, unity.
Did life change after having children?
Yes! One was fun, two is so much work! They bring us a lot of joy and it is wonderful to see a human grow from a baby to small children. Our children have made us a family and we are so grateful to them for that. It does make things harder, like traveling but we know it is a short period in life that they are dependent so we are enjoying being in Australia for this time.
There is lots of art in our home, what role does art have in your family?
Creativity is very important to us - Sackey and my ability to use creativity to keep our spirits high and connect others is very important to the way we live. Sackey says 'art keeps our spirit strong' and this is an important skill to pass on to our girls.
