«After losing my father at eighteen, I have very few shots left of us together. What remains are distant memories and formal portraits in the studio, images that seem disconnected from our daily relationship. Photography wasn’t that accessible at the time, and the archive I wish I had simply doesn’t exist. Hero, Father, Friend was born as a response to this absence. It reconstructs the emotional and visual moments I’ve longed for, filling in the gaps with both real and imagined scenes». The words of Carlos Idun-Tawiah, a Ghanaian photographer and filmmaker, describe the soul of the Hero, Father, Friend project, documented in this book in the form of an intimate and intense diary, which delves into memory to grieve through a search for identity and the reconstruction of a very solid father-son bond.

Idun-Tawiah’s work won Deloitte’s 2025 Photo Grant Award, with a Contrast theme. The international grant is now in its third edition and already constitutes a reference point for contemporary photography. Promoted by Deloitte Italia, it is under the artistic direction of Denis Curti and is created in collaboration with Triennale Milano and the «Still Camera» team.

Traveling a double track between reality and reconstruction, Carlos Idun-Tawiah’s photographs intertwine private and collective memory, recounting piano lessons with his grandfather, days on the beach with his uncle, and soccer games with his cousins: a family network united to fill an absence, reflecting on fatherhood and the different declinations of a complex and multifaceted role. The texts by Denis Curti and Alessio Fusi act as a critical counterpoint to this narrative, analyzing the emotional and visual contrasts that characterize it.

The Hero, Father, Friend project will be exhibited at the Milan Triennale from November 27, 2025 to January 25, 2026.