Fly over the floor of Lake Volta, Ghana
Perhaps if you look at Jeremy Snell's debut photo book Boys of Volta, it goes without saying that he is also an avid cameraman. The Hawaii-born humanitarian photographer is from Brooklyn and lived in Asia as a teenager. He transferred an otherworldly vision to his documentation of the children who live and work in the Lake Volta region in southern Ghana.
To make way for Lake Volta, completed in 1965, the communities were uprooted and relocated, and then forests and farms were flooded, remnants of which still remain on the lake floor. It lies behind the Akosombo Dam, which powers Ghana and neighboring countries, and has become the lifeblood of the fishing industry.
All images of Boys of Volta by Jeremy Snell, courtesy of the Open Doors Gallery
However, many of the workers in the local fishing industry are reported to be minors. Although some reports on the subject have been described as sensational, the boys who work in the fisheries around Lake Volta have come at the center of campaigns to combat child trafficking. This condition hasn't escaped Snell's notice – 10% of the book's profits go to the International Justice Mission, an NGO dedicated to combating slavery, human trafficking, and abuse.
At 8,500 square kilometers, the lake is the largest artificial reservoir in the world. While the Volta water appears almost unbelievably deep, Snell's depth of field is often shallow, so much of the frame is consumed by plumes of dense color, ranging from deep blue to burnt orange to hazy green. The water is sometimes silky, surrounded by haze and diffused light. In other shots it is vicious, warped by rain or a harsh bokeh effect and kept in haunting, shady tones.
Snell documents these children as they catch fish on Lake Volta without engaging in depictions of quarrel or distress. Instead, the images contain nuances that implicitly point to the circumstances Snell encountered – the recurring fishing net motif used to catch fish; The spectrum of colors that water and sky consume equally implies long working days.
In the introduction to the book, writer and poet Nii Ayikwei Parkes notes the contrasts and contradictions, the "beauty and terror" that permeate Lake Volta, and Snell follows that line throughout the series. Pictures of the boys wrapped in a net sit next to strong profiles that are shaped and calm like a bust. The story of the land grab, today's erosion of the coast by the dam, and concerns about child labor in the local fishing industry is confronted with serenity, ethereal views, and remarkable portraits.
As Parkes says, "What Lake Volta reflects is every bit of our complexity and it is almost an insult to describe it as a mere lake, but capturing elements of its existence in photographs means at least giving it credit, on its own speak for yourself. "
Jeremy Snell's Boys of Volta is published by Setanta Books; setantabooks.com