Labadi (La) sits on Accra's coast on the Gulf of Guinea, a Ga community shaped by canoe fishing and fish processing as the capital grows around it.

Industrial trawlers, most of them beneficially owned by Chinese corporations operating through local front companies, continue to strip the fish stocks these families depend on, while the coastline their community has worked for generations is steadily absorbed into tourism economies and commercial development.

Working with the Kaklamadu residents, I made portraits on the landing beach and in improvised studios, where boats, nets, a horse and flags became shared symbols. The series moves between constructed tableaux and quiet observation: boys at play, workers at rest, friends holding space for one another. It invites viewers to meet the Kaklamadu community beyond cliché, through dignity, intimacy and self-possession.

This work was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Awards in the Professional Portrait category and was exhibited at the prestigious Somerset House in London. This body of work is also part of Ron’s inaugural solo exhibition, “We Who Belong”, curated by SOTA and sponsored by Adobe, which will show at NOHO Showrooms in London, 18-21st June 2026.