Click! Shutter!! Bobbie!!!

Emmauel Bobbie

I am not good at pin pointing. And because of that I have become a serious lover of Emmanuel Bobbie’s works, to the extent that I can recognize his works just about anytime yet I do not know how he achieves that. Is it because of his composition? Or his love for bright and somewhat contrasting colors? Or the fact that he is able to take snapshots of places in Ghana and make them look so surreal. He will take a shot of the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange, publish it on Facebook and have people ask him where that is! He will say it is the Tetteh Quarshie interchange, and that he went up the Villagio Appartments to take the shots and the next comment will be, “how come I have always used Tetteh Quarshie Interchange and yet this looks so different?” Trust Emmanuel Bobbie to make Ghana’s landscape look so inviting.

I got charmed, for lack of a better word, with his works which he had published on Facebook.  I loved them to bits and I would usually tell Nana Kwadwo Duah of Oxygen that I love how Emmanuel is able to make sharp, bright and contrasting colors look so super cool in a given space. I was fascinated and wanted to know more about him, his works.

(Landscapes in Ghana)

One day, while chatting on Facebook with him, he mentioned that he has a shoot that Friday so if I can make it, I can come see him at work. This was after I had mention to him that I would love to witness him work. I got to the venue and had the chance of witnessing him and his “light man”, King George at work. I watched them set up, tripods and light equipment and checking the brightness as against using a filter or not. As they did all these checks, they kept mentioning some figures and taking test shots as they went along. The next series of shots involved adult and child models. The child models were a delightful pain to work with yet Bobbie found his way around them.

Sunset at Sea-Men drawing their fishing net

Through the shooting, we kept mild conversations. While moving from one venue to the other, he got us waakye from Katawudieso at Nyaniba. Through talks, I got to know that he worships with the Church of Pentecost with his wife and kids. He hardly goes out after 8 pm and the surprise of all was that he is a very shy man. So shy that when one of the ladies wanted to take a picture with him, his countenance changed instantly. The shot that was captured showed a man whose facial expressions were that of someone almost under duress.

A graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Emmanuel had his ‘O’ level certificate from the Odorgonno Senior High School and his ‘A’ level certificate from the Abuakwa State College. He sojourned to the United Kingdom and decided to come back to Ghana, pick up a camera and do magic with it for a living.

Amongst the professional photographers I have spoken with, Emmanuel has come up on the lips of many as one they admire. He has shot a lot of models and has a lot of corporate clients to his credit. He loves to travel around the country, taking shots and presenting Ghana in a very beautiful way. Some of the pictures get people to doubt him all because while we see a bare Afram Plains, Bobbie sees a beautiful landscape on the outskirts of Accra, much different from how we have all seen it all this while.

 

He is a lovely man to chat with, and you can go to Facebook and search for Emmanuel Bobbie. Whether through his personal profile page or business page, send him a message and be sure to get a reply from this photo magician!