Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination

‘Ideas of Africa is invested in mining incipient ideas of the continent … all rendered through the frame of the photographic portrait,’ writes Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) photography curator Oluremi C. Onabajo in her introduction to this beautiful and thought-provoking book. Published to accompany an exhibition at MoMA, it contains reproductions of many emblematic photographs from the mid-20th century, spanning various photographers and locales across West Africa and beyond. The work of Malian photographer Seydou Keïta (1923-2001) will already be familiar to lovers of portrait photography, especially in an African context, and as ever his images are a treat, compositionally and in their atmosphere of quiet confidence. Likewise, the work of Malick Sidibe (1936-2016), which always seems to contain an almost palpable delight – in photographs such as Nuit de Noël (Happy Club), for example. The book takes care to situate this visual evidence of postcolonial optimism in its political moment – Onabanjo’s conversation with poet Momtaza Mehri and writer Yasmina Price, also published in the book, is a highlight in this regard – while also emphasising the sense of buoyant possibility encapsulated by so many of these photographs of ordinary people.