His quest to educate himself on his passion compelled Ghana's first-ever photographer to travel for 12 days on the ocean to London in 1959.
James Barnor shared his intriguing journey with Graphic Online about how he survived the scary journey to learn on his job.
Mr Barnor landed in the UK where he studied photography at Medway College of Art in Kent, an opportunity he attributed to his teacher and his affiliation with the British clients he encountered during his photography journey.
“I arrived in the United Kingdom for the first time on December 1, 1959. I sailed by ship, you know, for about 12 days or 14 days. You know, the ship would pick up various travellers such as students from Ghana, and Nigeria, then go to Sierra Leone, and Gambia before finally arriving in the UK. So, it took some time,” he said.
While there, he contributed numerous documentaries and fashion photographs to the weekly magazine, DRUM, Africa's first black lifestyle magazine.
After about a decade in the UK, Mr Barnor returned to Ghana in 1970 to help set up the country's first colour-processing laboratory for the company Sick-Hagemeyer, a subsidiary of Agfa-Gevaert.
Using the skills he developed during his schooling in the UK, Mr Barnor brought colour photography to a broader market than ever before, a defining moment in Ghana’s photography history.
Prior to that, in 1949, Mr Barnor opened Ever Young Studios in the Jamestown district of Accra and later, Studio X23.
