Taking cues from midcentury black-and-white photography made on the coast of West Africa, the Ghanaian artist infuses expressive portraits of Black bodies with a fresh, contemporary energy befitting their individual voices. He adorns each subject with vibrant clothing that at once bucks gender norms, challenges colonialist notions, and allows them to fiercely assert their independence. Unconventional materials, meanwhile, also play a role—he recalls the story of Marcus Omofuma, a man who sought asylum in Austria due to persecution in his native Nigeria but was bound and gagged with duct tape and died en route to Sofia. In his portraits, Clottey wraps it around the body and asserts it as a symbol of strength.