Nana Frimpong Oduro: Shaping Emotion Through Photo-Surrealism and Visual Storytelling

April 7, 2025
6 Min
141

Nana Frimpong Oduro is a surreal and editorial photographer and creative director based in Accra, Ghana, whose work evokes emotion through bold visual narratives and dreamlike manipulations. With a style that merges editorial precision and surreal distortion, his photographs reach beyond documentation—they provoke, haunt, and resonate.

Frimpong’s journey began with a Tecno W3 phone in 2018, capturing self-portraits and street moments. His early experiments were simple, but filled with intention. Over time, his creative instincts evolved into a distinct visual language that now blends photo manipulation, collage, and digital layering. This transformation pushed his work into the space of photo-surrealism—where the familiar bends and fragments, and where emotion takes on visual form.

“My art is a way to bring feelings and emotions to life. Also my art comes from a place I don’t know but I feel like a vessel used to create all this art. Mostly, I say the creator of my art lives inside me and outside of me and I am just the vessel used to communicate what he wants to say.”

His images favor human subjects, but they are never just portraits. Frimpong creates constructed realities—sometimes eerie, sometimes ethereal—where figures drift, distort, or appear suspended in time. His manipulation techniques give rise to symbolic visuals: floating bodies, fragmented faces, exaggerated shadows, or duplicated limbs, often set against minimalist backdrops or digitally altered landscapes. These aren’t tricks of the eye—they are deliberate choices meant to reflect emotional states, spiritual dissonance, or the quiet turbulence of daily life.

Frimpong’s work is deeply influenced by his surroundings—Accra’s streets, textures, and people—as well as by broader artistic forms like poetry, music, and painting. He treats photography as a multi-sensory discipline, pulling rhythm, metaphor, and silence into each image. “I want people to feel my work, not just see it,” he says. “I want it to sit with them like a song.”

Although now working with DSLR cameras and professional gear, Nana maintains a love for shooting on his iPhone, valuing immediacy and intimacy over technical perfection. That same spirit of accessibility informs his broader creative mission. Frimpong regularly shares his skills with aspiring photographers, offering mentorship, guidance, and creative collaboration. He believes in opening doors—especially for other young, self-taught artists navigating the same terrain he once did.

His growing portfolio includes work with global brands such as Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, Daisie, and Blk Odyssey, and yet his artistic voice remains distinct and rooted in emotion. The success hasn’t diluted his message—it’s amplified it.

Nana Frimpong Oduro’s work speaks quietly but with power. Each photograph is a meditation, a metaphor, a memory reconstructed. His use of photo-surrealism is not just aesthetic—it’s emotional architecture, inviting us to enter, explore, and reflect.

You can explore more of his work on [insert link], and experience photography that doesn’t just capture a moment—but transforms it.