A Ghanaian photographer, Michael Aboya, has won the Best Photo of the Year at the 2019 Agora Awards held in Barcelona, Spain.
![Graça Machel was born in 1945 [CGTN]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Graça Machel was born in 1945 [CGTN]")
The competition which was hosted by a free-to-use photography app, Agora, received over 130,000 submissions from 193 countries.
At the event, the submissions of the 50 finalists of the competition were exhibited.
Michael Aboya submitted a photo titled ‘Songs of Freedom’. The photo got more than 500,000 votes and was voted Best Photo of the Year. He was awarded a prize of $25,000.
‘Songs of Freedom’ was shot in La, one of Ghana’s oldest neighbourhoods located in the country’s capital.
Aboya explained that he got the ‘Songs of Freedom’ vision while listening to Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’ at home, and whereupon he conceived the idea to bring it back to life.
“I moved to the beach a few hours after listening to the song and gathered a group of kids to pose for the camera. A kid, in particular, had the most expression among them and became the focus of the image,” he explained.
On the award, Aboya said that “this award means a lot to me since it is a prize for the many years of sacrifice, and following my passion,”
Aboya said that he aims to change the image people have of Ghana and the African continent through his photography.
His passion for arts and photography started in 2014 after he lost his father and had to drop out of school.
He used his little savings meant for his tuition to buy his first professional camera.
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