Local photographer J.K. Bruce-Vanderpuije opened a small studio in the then-colonial capital Accra, a generation before the Gold Coast became Ghana, where his family would become the de facto visual historians of a nation that had not yet been born.

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For 100 years, three generations of Bruce-Vanderpuijes have painstakingly amassed the world's largest collection of 20th-century Ghanaian photographs under one roof. They believe their Deo Gratias photo studio is the oldest in West Africa.

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From glass plates to digital files of nation-shaping events to intimate personal portraits, the family's 50,000-image archive offers a unique glimpse into Accra's transition from a colonial port into a bustling modern metropolis.

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"The story they tell is that of [Ghana's] history," said Kate Tamakloe, Bruce-Vanderpuije's granddaughter and keeper of the modern archive. "Without a history, you have no future."

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Virtually unchanged since opening in 1922, Deo Gratias sits on a busy street in the heart of Jamestown, the capital's oldest district. Grainy archive photos reveal the area was once much quieter before traffic and billboards clogged the streets.

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Today, the faces of local families, as well as famous musicians, politicians, and patrons adorn the studio's walls. A black-and-white photo of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first leader on gaining independence in 1957, hangs near others of Britain's Queen Elizabeth and disgraced American president Richard Nixon.

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"Pictures speak tonnes, louder than what has been written," said Daniel Tetteh, a Ghanaian historian who volunteers with Deo Gratias as an archivist. "If we don't preserve them, it means that the nation will lose its memory."

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Tamakloe took over Deo Gratias when her father Isaac Bruce-Vanderpuije, a lifelong photographer who inherited the studio from his father J.K., began to lose his eyesight. What began as a mission to digitise the archive has since become a full-time job, one she hopes to pass on to the next generation when the time comes.

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Seated in a lush garden outside the capital, Kate and Isaac flipped through an album of their favourite prints. One showed J.K. elegantly perched atop a racehorse. Another showed a young and beaming Isaac aiming his camera towards an unknown subject.

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"One must feel proud that for 100 years something has been preserved, and the coming generation will see what's happened," he said, gripping his cane while Kate looked on with a smile. "And I think that is not the end."

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