It is impossible to tell, looking at the quality of work he produces, that Kwesi Arko has been behind the camera for not more than five years.
Yet in such a short while — after making a self-taught start, beginning with commercial photography before settling on the niche genres of sports and wildlife photography — Arko already boasts quite the catalogue.
The latest entries into that ever-expanding portfolio of great photos came last Thursday at the Baba Yara Stadium, where Ghana hosted Angola in the first of their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers. The result was one nobody could have seen coming: a first loss for the Black Stars at that venue, otherwise a fortress, this century.
That stunning setback wasn’t the only thing that left the national morale deflated. The poor playing surface played its part, too, as did the shocking acts of vandalism by some aggrieved fans over the admittedly disappointing outcome of the game.
There weren’t many positives from an afternoon that served up a poor advertisement of Ghanaian excellence, but if one were really keen to find anything worth getting excited about, the body of work Arko produced on the day would have sufficed.
Perched atop a stool borrowed by a generous kebab vendor, Arko panned his lenses from the terraces to the pitch, capturing the passion of the fans and the exertions of the players, not missing a beat. Great as all the photos were, though, a handful particularly stood out enough to make the rounds on social media.
One featured a Ghanaian supporter draped almost entirely, in dress and paraphernalia, with the country’s colours; even against a backdrop of other Black Stars fans also attired in red, gold and green, this female fan stood out — thanks, in part, to Arko’s impressive ability to pick out and zoom in on any subject.
His work, though, began even before he entered the arena; en route, Arko spots a fan blowing loudly into a trumpet and, equipped with nothing but his phone’s camera, only does what comes naturally to him. The resulting image, with its primary subject’s cheeks puffed to their very limit, is as vivid as it is intense. Stare long and hard enough, and you might almost hear the sound being blasted through the trumpet.
Back to the game, though, and a couple of incidents of note, featuring two of Ghana’s most high-profile forwards, also make their way into Arko’s matchday folder.
One was of West Ham United star and Black Stars talisman Mohammed Kudus being brought down by Angolan midfielder Show in a manner that saw the former’s shirt ripped apart. Whether the occurrence of such gross sartorial damage was testament to the aggression in the tackle or a flaw in sportswear maker Puma’s manufacturing process is anyone’s guess. What isn’t in doubt, though, is how quickly the image, as caught by Arko, went viral.
And when a pitch invader made it all the way to the field — a worrying, if thrilling, trend in relatively recent Black Stars home matches — only to wrap himself around Ghana’s Jordan Ayew, Arko was on hand to snap that, too, not letting the offender out of focus even as the latter was being peeled away by security personnel.
Arko’s parting shot, if you’d call it that, is one that Ghanaians wouldn’t want to watch twice. Still, that still, of Angola goalkeeper Neblu celebrating — knees on the Baba Yara turf, arms outstretched, and head tilted towards the skies — tells its own story, one forever etched in the annals of our national game, illustrated by Arko’s masterful art.