Phases of Development
In 1999, Willis Bell willed his entire collection of photographic negatives and prints along with his darkroom studio, to Mmofra Foundation, a civic organization in Ghana founded by Efua Sutherland in the early 1990s to support cultural enrichment in inspiring environments for young people. Bell himself was active as an advisor to the organization in his later years. Mmofra Foundation's belief in the historical value of this collection for present and future generations provided the impetus to preserve the Willis Bell Photographic Archive and to pursue funding and personnel to support this work over more than twenty years.
2000
In 2000, Mmofra Foundation arranged a pilot project with Ira Gardner, then head of the photography department at Spokane Falls Community College in Spokane, Washington, USA, to test the viability of c.100 negatives from the collection. This initial effort proved that 35mm and medium-format 6x6cm negatives from Bell's archive could be successfully preserved and reproduced.
2005-2007
With the support of Eleonore Sylla, then Director of the German Goethe-Institut Ghana, Mmofra Foundation partnered with the Goethe-Institut, in 2005, to begin the assessment, restoration, and digitization of a portion of the collection in Accra, Ghana. The Goethe-Institut invited German photo restorer Gisela Harich-Hamburger and conservator Alf Bremer to assess the physical condition of the collection and to hold a two-month training workshop in November and December 2006, preparing a young Ghanaian team to begin the digitization of the collection. Under Alf Bremer's leadership, approximately 2,400 medium-format negatives were cleaned and digitized. The work completed during this period highlighted the significant historical and cultural value of the collection as well as its continuing vulnerability to severe damage from inadequate storage conditions.
A French-German cultural cooperation on the occasion of Ghana's 50th independence anniversary produced a calendar of 12 selected photographs from the Goethe-Institut restoration phase, for the 2007 Jubilee Year which was launched at the National Museum in 2006.
2008-2009
Select images from Bell's collection were featured in a catalog titled Through The Lens: A Photo Journey by Willis Bell, edited by Alf Bremer and Esi Sutherland-Addy, that was produced in 2008-2009 to complement a public exhibition of Bell's Goethe-Institut restoration phase photographs at the Nubuke Foundation, a visual arts center in Accra. The work completed during this period highlighted the significant historical and cultural value of the collection as well as its continuing vulnerability to severe damage from inadequate storage conditions.
2012-2014
The early restoration work in Spokane, Washington, USA and Accra enabled three exhibitions of selected photographs from Bell's archive, curated by Friends of Mmofra, a U.S. nonprofit and partner organization of Mmofra Foundation. The exhibitions were supported with a 2012 publication of the selected images, titled "The Willis Bell Collection Volume One".
2018
Under the leadership of Elisabeth Sutherland, director of Terra Alta, an Arts space in Accra, in 2018, Bell's collection was reorganized within the photographer's original studio and processes governing the use of the archive were formalized for the first time.
2019-2020
In 2019 and 2020, Friends of Mmofra and the Peck Stacpoole Foundation - both U.S. organizations supporting conservation projects - enabled the team led by Elisabeth Sutherland to undertake the cleaning and digitization of 6,000 items in the collection.
2022
After learning about the Archive of Malian Photography (amp.matrix.msu.edu) directed by Candace M. Keller and managed by Catherine Foley at Matrix: Center for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences at Michigan State University, in 2022, Mmofra Foundation collaborated with Matrix to rehouse, preserve, digitize, and catalog Bell's entire original print collection with funding from the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP) at UCLA. These images are accessible through MEAP's website as the Willis E. Bell Photographic Print Archive (1950s-1970s): https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/z13j93dc.
2023-2025
Continuing this partnership, in 2023, Mmofra Foundation and Matrix at MSU received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in the U.S. to preserve, digitize, and catalog c.40,000 of Bell's 35mm and medium-format negatives and to render globally accessible online the photographer's entire viable photographic collection of 48,586 original negatives and prints. As part of this project, a local digital archive and the rehoused physical collection remain in the custodial care of Mmofra Foundation in Accra.
The project was managed by Matrix at Michigan State University, in collaboration with a Mmofra Foundation Oversight Committee and informed by an Advisory Committee of experts. The digitization and initial metadata entry processes were undertaken by staff based in Accra, with training conducted by specialists at Matrix. (See Credits page for complete list of contributors.)
In April 2024, a mid-project conservation workshop also served as a dissemination event for the previous MEAP (Modern Endangered Archives Program)-supported phase of the project and was tailored for photographers, institutional representatives, and individuals specializing in photography, as well as library and archival studies, history, heritage studies, and media studies. Led by the Accra team, the two-day hybrid event included a demonstration of best practices in storage, cataloging, digitization, research-based annotation, and the preservation of vintage photographic prints within a West African context. The occasion highlighted the importance of sustained contact and networking in building local conservation capacity.
A launch for the NEH-funded phase of the project was held in Accra during September 2025, including a workshop and panel discussion.
Future Phases
The Willis Bell Archive envisages the following future activities for which it will continue to seek support: