“Isn’t it interesting?” says Carlos Idun-Tawiah. “Forms like poetry, painting, and even film are given room for fiction. But then photography has sort of been caged to a real-life documentation of what is, where we are not able to speak about what could be or what could have been.”

Through his carefully staged images, the Accra-based photographer and director taps into the hidden recesses of individual and collective memory. His tender series Boys Will Always Be Boys shows men of all ages forming bonds – even if unspoken – in the barbershop, the classroom, or the boxing gym.

Elsewhere, Sunday Special, a more autobiographical body of work, mirrors his own family albums filled with photos of him and his loved ones at church. Although the shoots are pre-planned, his scenes feel naturalistic, even familiar, and that’s exactly the point.