A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography exhibition book (paperback)

A celebration of the visual and cultural landscape of contemporary African photography, this stunning paperback exhibition book offers critical insight from the perspectives of Africa's leading artists and thinkers.

Since the invention of photography in the nineteenth century, Africa has been defined largely by Western images of its cultures and traditions. From the colonial carte de visite and ethnographic archive to the rise of studio portraiture and social documents of racial surveillance, the fraught relationship between Africa and the photographic lens has become inseparable from the discourses of post-colonialism.

Challenging these dominant images of exoticism and otherness, this exhibition catalogue illustrates how photography has allowed artists to reimagine African histories through the lens of the present, to shape our understanding of the contemporary realities we face.

Edited by Osei Bonsu, the book brings together a diverse range of artists and thinkers, who present varied perspectives on issues such as cultural heritage and restitution, spirituality, urbanism and climate change. It reveals how innovative contemporary photography challenges perceptions of history, culture and identity.

Osei Bonsu is Curator of International Art at Tate Modern, where he is responsible for organising exhibitions, developing the museum’s collection and broadening the representation of artists from Africa and the African diaspora. In 2020, he was named as one of Apollo Magazine’s ‘40 under 40’ leading African voices. Bonsu is author of African Art Now.

With contributions by:

Nomusa Makhabu, Professor of Art History and Visual Culture, University of Cape Town, Michaelis School of Fine Art. In 2020, she featured on Apollo Magazine’s ‘40 under 40 Africa’.

Jennifer Bajorek, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Visual Studies, Hampshire College. She works at the intersection of literature, art, and media, with a geographic focus on contemporary Africa.

Emmanuel Iduma, Nigerian writer, editor, and photographer. Iduma is author of the novel The Sound of Things to Come, and the non-fiction work A Stranger’s Pose. In 2020, he was listed in Apollo International Art Magazine’s ‘40 under 40 Africa’ for the broad social impact of his work. He received a Windham-Campbell Prize for Literature (Non-fiction) in 2022.

Sandrine Colard, Assistant Professor of Art History, Rutgers University-Newark, writer and independent curator. She specialises in modern and contemporary African arts and photography, with a focus on Central Africa.

• Exhibition A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography
• Dimensions 25.1 x 19.2 cm
• Material FSC certified paper and card
• ISBN 9781849768511
• Paperback Yes