"Where we came from"

Claude Eshun's family portrait "Bridging the Gaps" is in "Return Eternal: Into the Archives" at Simmons' Trustman Art Gallery

Claude Eshun, “Bridging the Gaps.” On view in “Return Eternal: Into the Archives,” at Trustman Art Gallery, Simmons University, through March 29. Photo courtesy Claude Eshun.

“Return Eternal: Into the Archives,” curated by photographer Mel Taing and gallery director Helen Popinchalk at Simmons University’s Trustman Art Gallery, spotlights photographers who work in conversation with archival images. One of them, Claude Eshun, also known as Don Claude, explores his identity, his personal history, and the Ghanaian diaspora in his work. For “Bridging the Gaps,” he drew from the deep trove of photos by Ghanaian studio photographer and photojournalist James Barnor, whose Ever Young Gallery in Accra documented neighbors in his Jamestown community and, incidentally, the changes brought on by Ghana’s independence from Britain in 1957.

“Bridging the Gaps” is a portrait of Claude’s family – Ghanaian immigrants in Worcester, who, like Barnor’s subjects at Ever Young, are alive at a pivot point in society, as well as actively dealing with the gap-bridging of assimilation.

What does his family think of the portrait? “My sister likes it because she sees how we embrace our traditional garments like the Kente cloth,” Claude said in an email. His brother likes it “because it shows a regular African household, nothing extra.” His mother? “My mom loves it." 

Claude writes:

Prior to my family photos, I was commissioned by another Ghanaian family, The Ababios, to create their family photos. After talking to their son, who’s close to my age, he asked why don’t I do it with my family? It was a great question.