Exhibition of African Photography at The Met

Over a century’s worth of portraits detailing the intimate lives of West Africans have gone on show for the first time in New York. The exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, titled In and Out of the Studio: Photographic Portraits from West Africa, looks at the earliest pioneers of African photography.

Renowned artists such as Samuel Fosso and Seydou Keita take their place alongside many lesser-known photographers in a captivating journey. This exhibition captures snapshots from the lives of people across the socioeconomic spectrum, stretching from metropolitan upper classes to the poorest rural communities in countries including Senegal, Cameroon, Mali, and Gabon. Drawn deep from the museum’s vaults, the exhibition features a diverse range of media including photos, cartes de visites, postcards, real photo postcards, and original negatives taken between the 1870s and the 1970s.

According to curator Yaelle Biro, “The earliest images in the exhibition, taken by professional and amateur photographers in the urban centers of Ghana, Togo, and Senegal, are the most moving and should not be missed. They convey an entirely different narrative than the one disseminated through colonial channels at the time.”

Moreover, Biro notes, “In and Out of the Studio is a rare opportunity to see how photographers and sitters collaborated to fashion their sense of self and define their own modernity.”

The exhibition runs until January 3, 2016 — Gallery 916, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.