J.K. Bruce-Vanderpuije (1899-1989) was born in Jamestown, British-Accra, Gold Coast [Now Ghana] where at the age of 23 he founded Deo Gratias photography studio. The studio remains open today as one of the oldest photography studios in Africa and celebrated a hundred years of operation in 2022.

Throughout his lifetime Bruce Vanderpuije acutely documented both day-to-day life and historical events in the Gold Coast and Ghana. In 1948 he photographed the British Head of Police Superintendent Colin Imray’s shooting of Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey at the Christianborg crossroads, these photographs were later tended in as evidence for the crime committed. This event, which encouraged the anti-colonial movements to press the British government to institute a committee to investigate the shooting, is largely regarded as the catalyst for Ghana’s eventual independence in 1957, a moment which Bruce- Vanderpuije also famously caught on camera at Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah’s speech at the Polo Grounds. Ultimately, J.K. Bruce- Vanderpuije not only photographed history but created it.