'Twins don’t beg' – Most influential young photographers in Ghana

In the past, photography required time and skill and as photographer and blogger, Mark Myerson stated, one needed to have an appreciable knowledge of the large wooden boxes, wet glass plates, dark room etc. to produce good quality photos.

This limited the job of photography to a few professionals, who were recognised as “champions” in villages, churches, schools and generally in our communities.

In the last decade or so, however, the digital age and the emergence of the camera-phone/smartphone has created an explosion in photography, where everyone can take photographs without any professional training or skills.

As a result, the profession of photography is changing. The phone is the number-one way of taking pictures, and the image quality achievable with some of today’s phones is quite okay.

This has led many to declare professional photography DEAD!!! However, there are a few photography enthusiasts who are still making a thriving profession out of photography.

In Ghana, one name that comes up readily among those successfully clinging on to the profession of photography in the face of the ‘onslaught’ by smartphone photography is TWINSDNTBEG (Twins Don’t Beg) of SWAGOFAFRICA.NEWS.



Signing a contract with Ekor Odel Ghana as Brand Ambassadors for the Sultan Drink

Twinsdntbeg is made up of twin brothers, Samuel Appiah Gyan and Emmanuel Appiah Gyan, who have worked so hard over the last few years to make their services appealing to many influential personalities online and offline.

In recognition of their sterling work as celebrity photographers, Twinsdntbeg has been voted the 2018 Most Influential Young Ghanaians in the Lifestyle Category of the Avance Media 50 Most Influential Young Ghanaians Awards 2018.

They were also signed on recently by Ekor Odel, a Ghanaian-owned import and export company, as brand ambassadors for their Sultan drinks.

The online population is consuming more content than ever before, and people still want to see high-quality images. Technology is getting better at automating the technical aspects of photography, but any camera or phone is still reliant on the photographer who takes the pictures and this is where Twinsdntbeg stand tall.

The two young photographers have invested time, money and other resources in their work to ensure that their images are of the highest quality.

It is, therefore, not surprising that they have worked with many bigwigs in the UK, Nigeria and Ghana including, the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo and his lovely wife, Madam Rebecca as well as the Second Lady of Ghana, Mrs Samira Bawumia, who has generally been described as a super beauty and incredibly photogenic.

They are also sought after by many of Ghana’s A-list celebrities, including former Miss Universe Ghana, Menaye Donkor Muntari, who is currently the National Director of the Miss Universe Ghana Organisation and wife of Black Stars “Big Boy,” Sule Ali Muntari.



The Twins in a memorable shot with the Second Lady of the Republic of Ghana, Samira Bawumia

Their powerful lenses have also captured the images of other important personalities such as Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, a former President of Ghana, Miss Universe Ghana 2018, Akpene Diata Hoggar, movie star, Lydia Forson, singer, Sister Debbie and literally, every big-shot in the Ghanaian public space.

The “snapping” twins have also covered major events in and outside Ghana and are regular faces at celebrity parties and private events. Twinsdntbeg were the official photographers for last year’s Miss Universe Ghana event, and they went on to cover the international show in Bangkok, Thailand.

There has been great improvement in smartphone photography, but for Twinsdntbeg, if one needs quality shots, there is currently no substitute for a big capacity high-tech professional camera and that is why one always sees them wielding huge cameras. Indeed, they keep investing in more sophisticated equipment in order to stay on top of the “game”.

They insist that the smartphone is doing wonders in the world of photography, especially for online images but there are some niche sectors of photography for which phones would not be of any use for some time.

For instance, the idea of shooting nature on a phone, even with a clip-on lens, is not feasible and anyone who has tried to take phone pictures in poor light knows that the results are often boring.

Talking about the threats of smartphones to their business, Twinsdntbeg said, “It’s fair to say that phones are already making their mark on photography, and are changing the role of the professional. But even the best camera-phones on the market are still far from ideal for many situations, and so we think we will be in business for some time”.

“We are, however, looking out constantly for new technologies and how they affect our job so that we can quickly adapt to emerging trends and stay relevant,” they noted.

Hard work, they said, is the name of the game, pointing out that, meeting the Second Lady, Mrs Samira Bawumia, for instance, was through the work they had done for others.

“We met her through social media (Facebook) and that was largely because of personal relationships we had with others that we had worked with,” the twins revealed, and added that they had risen to the top by the power of hard work, passion and the perfect grace of God.

They said they were also making use of the great opportunities that social media provides to get more clients and improve their business and urged the youth to also take advantage of social media to create jobs for themselves.



Samuel and Emmanuel were born on Monday, 3rd April, Nineteen-eighty-something. They studied Agriculture with a major in Post-Harvest Technology, Landscape Management and Architecture, respectively at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, Ghana.

The ever-smiling twin brothers were born to the late Mr Samuel K. Appiah and Evelyn Mantebea Appiah. They have a very lovely brother and three sisters, whom they described as sweet.

Sammy and Emma started photography in 2014 after understudying a Hollywood cinematographer and Director while on set in Ghana.

“But hey! Photography was actually not our first love. We started as musicians but we had a tough time getting help,” they recounted.

“We kept on moving from one producer to the other, begging for opportunities to record our works but all our efforts were unsuccessful, and it got to a point where we became very frustrated as no one was minding us, so we decided to work hard on ourselves and become the best in photography, which was also our passion,” they stated.

“Pursue your passion, make a living out of it but remember to take the right steps to secure your future,” they advised the youth.

They observed that some parents in Ghana put their young twins on the streets to beg for alms due to what some have described as the biting poverty resulting from having large family sizes.

Others too have various myths about twins, but for Emmanuel and Samuel, they say all they know is that the grace of God, teamwork and hard work make the dream work.

We also believe that, ”With God on our side, we will never beg. For us, TWINS DON”T BEG!!!”