Black and white photograph of a group of men using a double handled saw on a large log while another young man looks on from the L side of the image

Untitled (44UN-58-013), Ghana, 1958

Todd Webb

Gelatin silver print

Courtesy of the Todd Webb Archive L2020.85.8

Not on View

This photograph of Ghanaian loggers highlights Webb’s careful attention to the quality of workers’ lives throughout his assignment. While many of his photographs show workers in uniform or at the threshold of a well-kept employee housing development, others reveal the harsher side of industrial development. In this scene, the positioning of two men beneath a gigantic log underscores the precarious nature of their labor, apparently performed without the benefit of safety equipment despite the obvious hazards.

Image: In Copyright. Courtesy of the Todd Webb Archive

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