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July 16, 2025 24 mins

A single moment changed everything for Ghanaian visual artist Nana Frimpong Oduro. It began with a quiet walk, a dying tree, and a gifted camera from a stranger. That moment led him away from architecture and toward a new life in photography.

In this episode, I sit down with Nana to explore how he built a career rooted in emotion, storytelling, and self-discovery. He shares how he creates powerful images without technical equipment. Instead, he relies on instinct, connection, and the people closest to him. His work is raw, painterly, and deeply human.

This conversation is for artists seeking clarity on their path. Nana’s story offers insight, encouragement, and a reminder that your creative voice is worth following. Listen in and reconnect with the reason you started creating in the first place.



Chapters

 

00:00 - Introduction to Nana Frimpong Oduro

02:15 - Early Creative Influences in Ghana

03:48 - The Path to Architecture

05:12 - The Dying Tree: A Journey into Photography Begins

07:34 - Finding a Subject: The Power of Self-Portraiture

08:45 - From Idea to Image: Inside the Creative Process

12:20 - A Sign from the Universe: The Adobe Rising Star Award

14:35 - Finding a Visual Style: Light, Tone, and Emotion

16:30 - Family, Support, and Blossoming as an Artist

18:40 - The Myth of Originality and Unexpected Lessons

20:00 - Describing the Indescribable: Emotions Brought to Life

22:00 - Redefining Success and What's Next

 

Connect with Nana:

 

Follow Nana on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frizzlemadeit/

Nana’s Portfolio: http://bit.ly/3ZRZKYN

 

Support the Show

Website: www.martineseverin.com

Follow on Instagram: @martine.severin | @thisishowwecreate_

Subscribe to the Newsletter: www.martineseverin.substack.com

This is How We Create is produced by Martine Severin. This episode was edited by Santiago Cardona and Daniel Espinosa.

 

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, I am Nana Odro and this is how I create.
Welcome to This Is How We Create, a show that digs deeper into the creative life ofcontemporary artists of color.
Discover what feeds their creativity and how they found or are finding their artisticvoice.
Through these intimate and candid conversations, you'll gain insights into the lives ofcreative professionals of color that are hard to find anywhere else.

(00:25):
Welcome back to This Is How We Create.
My name is Martine Severin.
You're a host.
Today, we're joined by Nana Frimpong-Oduro, who is a remarkable visual artist whose workcaptures the profound depths of human emotion.
Nana Frimpong-Oduro is based in Accra, Ghana.
He discovered photography during a period of personal struggle, finding that the camerabecame his gateway to light and healing.

(00:55):
His journey began formally in 2019.
when an anonymous admirer of his Instagram gifted him his first camera.
Oduro's photographs delve into the complexity of human experience, exploring love,sadness, addiction, and internal conflict.
His images aren't just photographs, they're visual poems speaking to our shared emotionallandscape.

(01:22):
As he tells it, my art is a way to bring feelings and emotions to life.
I feel like a vessel used to create this art.
The creator lives both inside and outside of me.
I'm simply here to communicate what needs to be said.
Nana, welcome to the show.
Thank you very much.

(01:43):
Nana, I think I first discovered your work, boy, I think it was a few years ago.
And I have to say, I was a little bit dumbstruck.
was like, whoa, what?
And so when we thought about creating This Is How We Create, I definitely had you on mylist of people to reach out to.

(02:04):
And I'm so glad you're finally here.
I'm so glad to be finally here too.
So Nana, can you share with us some of your childhood memories that feature earlyexposures to art and creativity and how that might have influenced your journey into the
creative field?
So early in my childhood, I think when I gained consciousness as a human being, as achild, the first thing that I really fell in love with was the paintings that I see

(02:33):
around.
In Ghana, when you come to Ghana, you mostly see people paint their shops.
Sometimes they make art on the shops, like with different forms of art and different formsof businesses.
That was what used to be done those days.
So it was something that I told myself that I can do too.
I just started drawing on a piece of paper when I go to school.

(02:58):
just draw my imaginations were just all over the place.
I used to draw angels a lot when I was young and drew animals.
And yeah, I was always excited when it was art period when I'm supposed to draw.
So I think that's when I just realized that I have this gift of art.

(03:18):
So in some of the research I did about you, it sounds like architecture was initially yourway of thinking how you could access the creative or a creative field.
Can you tell us about why you thought about architecture in particular?
Okay, I didn't think about it.

(03:39):
I will say my uncles and my mom thought about that and they were like, oh, since you arean artist, since you are good at making art, I think the best thing for you is going to
architecture school because that's where there's a lot of money.
You know, where we come from, they just think more of the money than what makes the childhappy.

(04:01):
So they were like, oh.
don't do graphic designing, don't do BSc in fine arts, because that's what I wanted to do.
I was being told from childhood that I have to be an architect.
I have to be an architect.
that's what made me find the interest there.
But when I went to architecture school, I really loved it because it challenges my mind.
It made me go very deeper and realize that, I have a very great gift.

(04:26):
That means that I can do a lot of things that relate to art.
So was your thoughts that even in architecture school that you could potentially createart on the side?
Yeah, I wanted to, apart from just being an architect, I wanted to design other things.
I wanted to design furniture.
I wanted to design jewelry.

(04:46):
I wanted to design anything, cars.
That was what I thought I could do.
I thought I could do other things, except just being an architect.
So it turns out you didn't end up becoming an architect because life had other plans foryou.
Can you tell me the story of the dying tree and how this sparked this whole journey tophotography?

(05:08):
Yeah.
So on a vacation, I was just sitting under a tree, which was a dying tree.
So I was just sitting there reminiscing and thinking about my life and how I could dosomething apart from being an architect, because it was, I was really idle and I was on a
long vacation and I wasn't doing anything.

(05:28):
So then I started to check on how to take pictures with a phone and if it's possible.
And I got introduced to um
other pictures that we're on iPhones, other phones, and they were really good.
They felt like they were shot on camera.
So I Googled it.
As soon as I saw all those things, started taking my, I took my first self-portraits rightthere and it became like an addiction.

(05:54):
I started taking more and more and more and
Can you tell me about how it felt when you took that first photo?
So bring me back to that day when you done a little bit of research and now you've takenyour first photo.
How did it feel when you were taking the photo?
What were some of the feelings going through your body?

(06:15):
Place me at the point when you were pressing the shutter and when you were experimenting.
Tell me that story.
So it felt surreal because I didn't believe that I could make something like that with myphone.
So I was really excited.
like the excitement made me started taking more.
It's like the first time a little uh child tastes toffee, they want more.

(06:38):
So that was the whole excitement.
When I took it, I was just so excited.
So I just went on to take more, to take more and other people saw it and they were like,yo, you should take this thing very serious.
I was like, really?
then it got me excited.
The words of affirmation from people, it kept coming, you can add this to yourarchitecture, you'll be great.
I was like, this is like God talking to me.

(06:59):
So I just took that personal and I was like, the voices are a lot.
And if those voices are a lot, I'm going to just say is God talking to me.
So that was when I had to just go deeper and be like, okay, I want to grow in this andbecome better and better.
Great.
That was a really great answer that you provided to that first day.

(07:22):
At what point did you start thinking about using yourself as a subject in your work?
Was this uh a gradual progression or was it just something that came up to you or was itsomething that just popped in your head one day?
Okay, at that moment, I'm a very shy person, so I didn't know who to use for my art.

(07:47):
But then when I look back to it, I think it was a really good blessing because it helpedme get to grow gradually like a baby.
So I started taking pictures of myself.
So me doing that, I was using my own emotions to create the art and it helped me actuallyunderstand how to create pictures that

(08:10):
carry emotions and not just beautiful pictures but pictures that carry emotions and theysay something meaningful.
So that was how I started because I didn't have anybody to use so I wanted to practicewith myself and I had no since I had nothing I had to use me to do it so I just had to go
like that.
It's really beautiful.

(08:30):
think sometimes people feel limited by what they don't have and they don't always startthinking about what they do have, right?
They have themselves and I love what you just said.
I'd love for you to walk me through when you have an idea.
I guess I'm really interested in what does the creative journey look like from the idea tothe execution of the idea?

(08:56):
Can you walk me through that?
Okay, so it's very tricky because sometimes I get the idea in my room and sometimes I getthe idea when I am actually getting ready to take a picture.
So most of my ideas come as imaginative and not words.
So I see it in my mind and however I see it is however I put like I try to make itpossible to come out.

(09:24):
So my ideas just come to me like
flashes of images.
I don't think about it.
I just sit down when you just come to me.
Is it more like a movie or is it just an image, a complete image?
And so then you proceed to execute the complete image.

(09:44):
Yeah, it's a still image.
It just comes like an image and does it.
From the original idea to the finished concept to finishing making that image, how far areyou usually off of that idea that's originally in your mind to getting the image?
Most times I am very far from it.

(10:07):
So I, I delete the whole picture.
Most times is very, very far from what I want.
And I just be like, I don't want this picture anymore.
And the ones that really get close to me, that are really a hundred percent what I see inmy mind.
They are the pictures that I don't plan.
I don't think about when I'm on site and I'm shooting images, the images that come to mymind, I get it a hundred percent the same thing in my mind and they wake up for me.

(10:34):
No, no, I think, you know, we're chatting about this and it sounds really simple, but it'snot because a lot of times you are duplicating yourself in a lot of different positions.
And as such, there are a lot of times that you just have to like keep taking photos.
You have to be mindful of the sun, how it's shifting shadows.

(10:57):
And it's like, this is not a simple thing at all.
So walk me through.
some of your favorite tips that you've learned in terms of creating these fine art piecesof work in which you are the subject and you are communicating with us emotions and

(11:19):
communicating a story to us.
Okay, so the thing is that recently most of my shoots I do are with my friends.
So when I duplicate it is because like I said, I use what I have to create what I see.
So the duplication comes from the fact that some of the pictures I wish I had aboutthousand people or 20 people, they're taking the picture with me.

(11:42):
But then if I have one person, I'm still going to make sure that I use that same oneperson to create whatever I see in my mind.
I'm assuming that you use a tripod.
No, I am the human tripod.
So my friend is the model.
Sometimes I go with just one person.
Sometimes I go with two people.
And we make sure that we kill it before we come.

(12:05):
And how long does that usually take you?
Sometimes 30 minutes, 45 minutes, the most will be an hour.
So from the first time that you started your photography journey and your journey ofcreating, you've gotten quite a few accolades, you've had a few exhibitions of your work,

(12:26):
and most recently in 2020 you became an Adobe Rising Star.
Can you tell me about some of the things that you've learned along the way and some of theskills that you've had to acquire?
in order to keep creating these images that you see in your head.
One thing I can say is that never give up.

(12:48):
That is one thing I learned from this because when I started it, I thought this was notgoing anywhere.
The first time I got a text from Adobe, that day I was planning on deleting my Instagram.
Yeah.
So the first time I got a text from Adobe, that was the same day I was planning ondeleting my Instagram the next day.
I just wanted to go off for some time.

(13:08):
But then as soon as I got the message, I'm like, wow, there's a higher force that doesn'twant me to stop this.
So.
I just went on with it I'm like, okay, it looks like this is something that means a lot,not to me, but whoever gave me this gift, it means a lot to this person.
So I was like, I'm going to make sure I grow in it.
I'm going to water whatever I have in me.

(13:29):
And so every day I was looking forward to seeing how I can make it better.
And I had to learn how to use Photoshop and everything.
So learning Photoshop really helped me bring my ideas to life.
Takes time to learn Photoshop, that's for sure.
Yeah.

(13:50):
I still can't believe you don't use a tripod.
Do you use a timer?
You just really press the button.
Yeah, I just press the button.
I don't use a tripod.
my gosh, you're like, let's talk about light and toning.
You have a very interesting love of, of using the sun and use light in a very lovely way.

(14:15):
It, feels, it feels painterly the way you use light and then your shadows are so stark.
then at the same time, your greens are just a really lovely.
deep and warm green, how did it come to finding your style in terms of the way that youtone your image and how you could evoke that feeling or the feelings that you want to

(14:43):
evoke in your image?
Okay, so I think it came from experimenting but one thing that makes it look very like apainting is that I am always constantly looking at paintings on wiki art so I am always
looking at paintings so I think that I like how when the Renaissance paint with shadowsand light how they use the light and the shadows so I really kind of learned from that but

(15:13):
when it comes to the
the colors I use in terms of the grading.
I don't know how that thing, that idea just came.
It just came to me to just try and use like a dark blue tone or greenish dark tone.
So when I did it, I personally, when I'm creating, I don't feel it.
I'm just creating.
I don't see what people see, how people say, this is good.

(15:35):
But when I did that one for the first time, I'm like, wow, this is hitting me.
So I'm like, okay, I'm going to go it like, I'm going to go like this.
And I started going there, but I still experiment with other edits, but I'm still kind ofin love with how I feel when I use that kind of tone.
It took me a while to figure it out too, in terms of what my toning would be, because Ithink at first I was like, what do mean by toning?

(16:02):
It's just an image.
But then when you do start toning it in certain ways, it then, there's something thathappens, like everything just clicked.
And like you, with my imagery, I wanted to create a tone that was linked to a particularfeeling.

(16:23):
that is also embedded in the vision that I have for my photography, you know, and for mycreative work.
So it's really nice to hear you describe yours that way.
All right, so at this point, I really would love to hear about what your family feels orwhat they think about what is suddenly happened in your career.

(16:49):
because you're doing a creative career, you're no longer doing architecture.
You're not doing graphic design though with composition.
You are indeed using the tenets of graphic design.
So tell me what they think about how you've blossomed.
Ever since they saw everything, the way everything came out, they've been supersupportive.

(17:13):
Like they push me to go harder and harder.
Like they are always challenging me to do better.
My sisters are always saying, I need to grow, I need to read more, I need to learn more, Ineed to add more things to it.
Like they are forcing growth in me and I really love it.
But my mom was my first supporter.
I was telling her, she was the reason I posted because I was really

(17:36):
Nervous to post my first work and she was telling me that if I want to do something Ishould just do it and I shouldn't think of the outcome because I have nothing to lose and
I just posted it and that was it.
So since then they've been really really supportive.
Now, what does better look like for you?
So you just mentioned that you're being encouraged to better yourself.

(17:58):
What does that mean and what does that look for you?
For me, better is a form of growth.
It's like, if I'm like this, I want to see myself become like this.
You get what I'm saying?
So like, I'm going to use a plant as an example.
So a plant can stay down forever.
It has to grow.
And to me, that is better.

(18:19):
So I want to see growth in my works.
I want to see growth in my ideas.
I want to see growth in even my editing and toning.
That is what makes me feel like, okay, I'm doing better.
I don't want to be stagnant, I want to see growth.
It's a little bit of what we all want because as creatives, can you imagine if we were allstuck in the same place where we started?

(18:45):
So what are some of the things that you learned about this whole process that's been alittle bit unexpected?
Things that you didn't think that would be important that particularly are reallyinstrumental to your journey?
Yeah, I think one thing I have learned in my journey is that creatives should let, thereis an ego and it's like we want to always do something new that no one has ever done.

(19:12):
But I don't think there is something new that no one has ever done.
So I realized that inspirations can just come from looking at another person's artwork.
You just do something different.
Yeah, so.
That's one thing I've realized that if you're creative, you're going to stop yourself ifyou're always telling yourself, I don't want to get in, look at anybody's work.

(19:34):
I don't want to do this.
I think it should be open.
You get one.
You should be very receptive to absorb every other thing that you see and is really goingto create something new in you.
That is what I've realized because there's nothing new.
There's nothing new under the sun.
oh But I guess the newness comes in how we interpret what it is that we know, how weinterpret the world.

(19:59):
So I have two, potentially three questions for you.
So one of the questions I have is, I can imagine that we have people who are listening tothis episode and they're thinking about, so yeah, this guy's a photographer.
What makes his work so singular?
What makes his work?
so different than what other people have done in the past.

(20:19):
And I guess I know why I love your work because it is so fresh.
It features the black body in ways that we haven't seen it before.
Your use of surrealism is linked with your influences from Renaissance paintings, as youmentioned.

(20:42):
How would you describe your work?
Let's say someone were blind and they've never seen your work before.
How would you describe it?
I will describe my work as this is a challenging question.
But I think the best thing I'll say is that my words are emotions brought to life.

(21:02):
My words are an intuition brought to life.
That is what I'm going to say.
I'm going to say they are the deepest part of my subconscious like mind.
And this is what I have brought to life.
So in general, I'll just say these are emotions brought to life.
through the use of the human body.

(21:23):
Yeah
Has your understanding of success or your idea of success changed over time?
For me, my idea of success was, let's say if before was that if I set a target here thisfar, I have to get there before I realize that I am successful.

(21:45):
But now I realize that every milestone, every little achievement is a sign of success.
For like people just even telling you that your works make them cry, it made them thinkabout themselves.
It makes them look at themselves and it makes them understand themselves.
It makes them feel understood.

(22:05):
It's really, it feels like I have accomplished something when people tell me that.
Like someone buying an artwork feels so great.
It means that it means a lot to the person because there are some works that I don't likeeven when I post them.
But the way people react with it, it feels like, wow, this is not for myself.

(22:26):
I'm doing this for these people.
So.
that is very successful to me.
Like every little milestone is something that I'm really, I've started to be grateful forbecause those little things are what have made me who I am today.
That's beautiful.
Nana, what is next for you?

(22:47):
What do you have coming down the road?
Hmm, right now I'm planning on doing more exhibitions like outside Ghana.
So I'm looking forward to working with more galleries.
I want to create another cover art for an artist.
I don't know if you know Black Odyssey.
No!
Yeah, so you should check him out on Spotify or Apple Music.

(23:11):
So I made his first cover art for him.
That was my first time doing a cover art for an artist in the US.
So it's something that I really love because I think art and music go hand in hand.
So I like to work with, do more cover art for artists and explore more with my artsbecause I think there's more I can do with it.

(23:32):
can't wait to take a look to see the cover art that you created.
And perhaps we can use that cover art for your episode when we start promoting it.
Well, Nana, thank you so much for joining us.
I really enjoyed our conversation and thank you for your patience because we have toreschedule.
Thank you too for giving me this opportunity to share my story with people.

(23:59):
there.
I have a quick favor to ask you before you go.
If you're loving this show, would you mind taking a quick second to leave us a five starreview on your favorite go to podcast app?
Here's the thing.
Those reviews are like magic fairy dust.
They help other creators of color discover our show and tap into their own artisticsuperpowers.

(24:24):
While you're at it, why not subscribe to our sub stack newsletter, Creative Matters.
Creative Matters is like a weekly dose of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
You can find the link to subscribe in the show notes.
Alright, that's all that I have for you today.

(24:45):
I can't wait to see you on the next episode.
Bye!
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