Following a successful debut in Tamale, the Savannah Foto Festival (SFF), the second edition in the Northern Ghana Foto Festival rotation, is steadily establishing itself as one of Ghana’s most influential platforms for visual storytelling. The festival is attracting growing national and international attention to the region’s cultural, environmental, and social narratives.
The week-long event showcased more than 500 photographs from over 60 photographers, including emerging talents and established visual storytellers. The strong response has reinforced the festival’s reputation as one of the most inclusive and content-rich photography events in Ghana.
The festival is an initiative of Buta Visual Agency and Foto4Change, led by multiple award-winning visual storyteller Geoffrey Buta. It was founded to preserve and amplify Ghana’s stories through photography, creative education, and community engagement, while placing the Northern Regions within wider global cultural, development, and climate discussions.
Activities were hosted across public and cultural spaces, with a major exhibition held at Mole National Park, Ghana’s premier wildlife destination. The park was transformed into an open visual gallery featuring works on culture, conservation, climate change, identity, tradition, daily life, youth perspectives, and inclusivity. Photographs from three schools for the deaf were also exhibited, offering a deeper and more authentic view of life in northern Ghana.
Through exhibitions, photographer talks, workshops, and community engagements, the festival highlighted photography as both an art form and a tool for education, advocacy, and social reflection.
Founder and Festival Director Geoffrey Buta described the response to the open call as a major milestone.
“Our expectation was to receive about 30 entries, but we recorded over 60 submissions, which was truly overwhelming. This level of participation shows the hunger among young photographers to tell their own stories. It also confirms that Savannah Foto Festival is meeting a real need,” he said.
The partnership with Mole National Park created a strong link between art, conservation, and tourism, allowing visitors to engage with visual stories of culture and wildlife within one of Ghana’s most iconic conservation areas.
More than 1,000 people, including tourists, students, creatives, local residents, and conservation stakeholders, visited the festival, underscoring its growing reach and tourism value. Savannah Regional Minister, Mr Salisu Be-Awuribe, described the festival as a driver of long-term regional development.
He said the Foto Festival is a strategic cultural investment that tells the region’s stories with dignity, attracts global attention, and inspires young people to see creativity as a path to development and pride. He commended Geoffrey Buta and his team and called for support to scale the initiative to other regions.
Park Manager of Mole National Park, Mr Ali Mahama, stressed the importance of visual storytelling in conservation, noting that photography has the power to make people care.
He said through the Savannah Foto Festival, the beauty and fragility of Mole National Park are shared with the world, reminding people that conservation is about heritage, people, and responsibility to future generations.
“This collaboration with the organisers will help put the park on an international tourism map as a great initiative yet to be experienced by tourists all over the world,” he added.
The Spanish Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Ángel Lossada Torres-Quevedo, praised the festival during a tour of the exhibition, describing it as community-driven and globally relevant.
He said the Foto Festival represents the kind of cultural dialogue the world needs, authentic, inclusive, and globally relevant.
“I am proud to witness initiatives that use visual storytelling to promote cultural understanding, sustainability, and social inclusion,” the Ambassador said.
Following this engagement, the Spanish Ministry has expressed readiness to submit work and participate in the next edition of the festival, reflecting growing international confidence in SFF as a partner for cultural cooperation, social inclusion, and development-focused storytelling.
Savannah Regional Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Alhaji Sulley Ahmmed, described the festival as a powerful destination branding tool.
“These images promote northern Ghana better than words alone, which aligns perfectly with our vision to position the region as a must-visit destination for culture, nature, and authentic experiences,” he said.
Despite being largely self-funded, the Northern Ghana Foto Festival continues to grow through resilience, volunteerism, and strong community ownership. Organisers say that with sustained support from embassies, corporate institutions, development partners, and cultural foundations, future editions will expand to more regions, strengthen youth training and mentorship, support emerging photographers through grants and commissions, and establish a permanent visual archive of northern Ghana’s culture, heritage, and environment.