Todd Webb in Africa: Outside the Frame

This book will fascinate students of documentary photography as well as anyone interested in the changing ways that Africa has been presented to the rest of the world. Images of eight countries including modern-day Togo, Ghana, Zambia and Tanzania were taken over a five-month period in 1958 by US photographer Todd Webb, having been commissioned by the United Nations as part of a project intended to optimistically showcase industry and technology across the continent. Todd Webb in Africa goes well beyond simply reproducing the photographs in question, however, by including a series of thought-provoking essays that explore the various “strengths, intentions, and inevitable biases” that they represent.