If we play like this, we stand a chance. (to good memories)

Here and now. That's all we have, and if you ask Nana Yaw Oduro, we should enjoy it with abandon. In his latest project, If we play like this, we stand a chance. (to good memories), commissioned by Cero Magazine, the Ghanaian photographer offers, in his signature dreamy style, a meditation on relishing in the present. The title, he explains, "means we should live very happily. We should be so in-the-moment today that if tomorrow comes out badly, it shouldn't be a problem for us, because we've already lived our lives to the fullest."

At once optimistic and frank, the concept came to Oduro as he witnessed how difficult the coronavirus pandemic has been for so many. "Since things are way different, people feel left out and alone and disconnected from their loved ones," he says. "Looking at the whole project, looking in the faces of the people, most of the images show devastated faces."

Indeed, the images depict Black boys wearing somber expressions, yet their body language, clothing, and props are, with few exceptions, joyful. One, his head covered in a yellow balaclava, holds a landline telephone in a matching color. Another sits watchfully astride a horse along the seashore. Eggs as playthings, a hair tug, a bicycle ride—the overall atmosphere is wonderfully childlike. As Oduro writes in his artist’s statement, "the lockdown has made me reflect on things from my past and childhood when I used to have so much freedom and less worries."

Oduro was born and raised in Accra, Ghana. He graduated from the University of Ghana with a business degree in 2017, though his photography career began two years earlier. The subjects in his images are often proxies for himself, as he explores childhood, masculinity, and his own emotions, all in a tender light—often literally. In these new images, the boys are photographed on a beach that looks perpetually bathed in the warm light of the golden hour. It’s a surreal, timeless quality he routinely creates in his work, though in this project, the feeling is of endless serenity.

For a second, forget about the pandemic, guns, bills, taxes, fender benders, heartbreaks, remote meetings, and packed schedules. Take a deep breath. That feeling is there for you too. "I hope people don't take a moment for granted. Everything in this life, it's kind of unpredictable," Oduro says, "so you have to be in the moment."

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