The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today the appointment of Oluremi C. Onabanjo as Curator in the Department of Photographs, following a comprehensive international search conducted over several months. Onabanjo joins The Met from The Museum of Modern Art, where she currently serves as The Peter Schub Curator in the Robert B. Menschel Department of Photography.
In her role as Curator at The Met, she will develop exhibitions, acquisitions, and scholarship in twentieth century and contemporary photography as well as time-based media, with an emphasis on international practices, particularly in Africa and Asia. Onabanjo will help lead the stewardship and interpretation of the Walther Collection—a landmark gift of over 6,500 photographs, albums, and works of time-based media—including a major exhibition planned for 2028, while working collaboratively across the Museum to expand the presentation of photography within a broader, interconnected narrative of art. In close collaboration with colleagues across the Museum, she will contribute to projects that extend beyond the boundaries of medium and department, advancing new and holistic approaches to the presentation of art across cultures and time.
“Oluremi C. Onabanjo is among the most compelling voices in contemporary photography today,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Her scholarship and curatorial vision reflect a deep engagement with the histories of the medium and a thoughtful approach to the ways photography shapes our understanding of the world. As we look toward the future of art at The Met—including the development of the Oscar L. and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing—Onabanjo’s perspective will be invaluable in advancing a more expansive and globally connected narrative of art, fostering new dialogues across departments, cultures, and time.”
She joins the Department at a pivotal moment as the Museum advances key institutional initiatives, including the development of Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, opening in 2030. In this context, photography will continue to play an important role in shaping how art from the late nineteenth century to the present is presented across the Museum’s galleries. This appointment reflects a broader institutional commitment to expanding the narratives through which art of the late nineteenth century to the present is presented. She will begin at The Met later this summer.
“Onabanjo brings a remarkable depth of knowledge and a rigorous approach to the study of photography,” said Jeff Rosenheim, The Met’s Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs. “Her work reflects a nuanced understanding of the medium’s histories and its global trajectories, as well as a strong commitment to expanding the collection in meaningful and enduring ways. We look forward to the perspectives she will bring to the Department and to the Museum as a whole.”
Onabanjo commented: “I am honored to join The Met at such a dynamic moment as it looks ahead to the future of Photography in the Museum. The Met’s extraordinary collection and its commitment to presenting art across cultures and time offer a powerful context for rethinking the histories of photography. I look forward to contributing to the Department’s work and to engaging new audiences with the medium.”
Onabanjo’s curatorial practice is grounded in a fine-tuned examination of photography’s social, political, and aesthetic dimensions, with a particular commitment to the medium’s history across the African continent and African Diaspora, and its entanglement in forms of visuality, knowledge production, and archival formation across the globe. First joining The Museum of Modern Art in 2021 as an Associate Curator, Onabanjo has served as The Peter Schub Curator in the Robert B. Menschel Department of Photography since 2024, where she oversees the Museum’s collection of more than 35,000 photographs spanning the history of the medium.
At MoMA, she spearheaded major acquisitions which have broadened and deepened the Museum’s engagement with image-makers across the globe such as Gabrielle Goliath, Aline Motta, Marilyn Nance, Silvia Rosi, Eslanda Robeson, and Zofia Rydet. She also served on the Museum’s Early Modern Working Group (which she co-chaired from 2022–2024) and was instrumental in integrating photography into the ongoing reinstallation of the Museum’s collection through evolving presentations such as A Little Gallery of the Photo-Secession, Ernest Cole’s House of Bondage, The City as Spectacle, and Visual Vernaculars. Her exhibitions and collaborations include New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging (2025); New Photography 2023: Kelani Abass, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Yagazie Emezi, Amanda Iheme, Abraham Oghobase, Karl Ohiri, Logo Oluwamuyiwa (2023); Projects: Ming Smith (2023); as well as Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, on view through July 25, 2026.
Prior to her tenure at MoMA, Onabanjo served on the curatorial team for the 8th Triennial of Photography Hamburg (2021) and was the Director of Exhibitions & Collections at The Walther Collection in New York, where she oversaw a dynamic acquisition, exhibition, research, and publication program committed to a critical engagement with historical and contemporary photography across the globe. Onabanjo has taught and lectured widely on international histories of photography, including at Yale University, NYU’s Institute for Fine Arts, University of California Berkeley, Instituto Moreira Salles, and FOAM Photography Museum, and her writing is featured in catalogues published by The Art Institute of Chicago, Aperture Foundation, Jeu de Paume, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the São Paulo Bienal among others. She is the author of Ming Smith: Invisible Man, Somewhere Everywhere (2023) and the editor of Marilyn Nance: Last Day in Lagos (2022). Onabanjo was the inaugural recipient of the Vilcek Foundation Prize for Curatorial Work (2025) and a 2024 Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow. She sits on the Photography Advisory Board of the Istanbul Modern. Onabanjo holds a PhD in art history and a BA in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies from Columbia University, and an MSc in visual, material, and museum anthropology from Oxford University.
Credit: artdaily
In her role as Curator at The Met, she will develop exhibitions, acquisitions, and scholarship in twentieth century and contemporary photography as well as time-based media, with an emphasis on international practices, particularly in Africa and Asia. Onabanjo will help lead the stewardship and interpretation of the Walther Collection—a landmark gift of over 6,500 photographs, albums, and works of time-based media—including a major exhibition planned for 2028, while working collaboratively across the Museum to expand the presentation of photography within a broader, interconnected narrative of art. In close collaboration with colleagues across the Museum, she will contribute to projects that extend beyond the boundaries of medium and department, advancing new and holistic approaches to the presentation of art across cultures and time.
“Oluremi C. Onabanjo is among the most compelling voices in contemporary photography today,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Her scholarship and curatorial vision reflect a deep engagement with the histories of the medium and a thoughtful approach to the ways photography shapes our understanding of the world. As we look toward the future of art at The Met—including the development of the Oscar L. and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing—Onabanjo’s perspective will be invaluable in advancing a more expansive and globally connected narrative of art, fostering new dialogues across departments, cultures, and time.”
She joins the Department at a pivotal moment as the Museum advances key institutional initiatives, including the development of Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, opening in 2030. In this context, photography will continue to play an important role in shaping how art from the late nineteenth century to the present is presented across the Museum’s galleries. This appointment reflects a broader institutional commitment to expanding the narratives through which art of the late nineteenth century to the present is presented. She will begin at The Met later this summer.
“Onabanjo brings a remarkable depth of knowledge and a rigorous approach to the study of photography,” said Jeff Rosenheim, The Met’s Curator in Charge of the Department of Photographs. “Her work reflects a nuanced understanding of the medium’s histories and its global trajectories, as well as a strong commitment to expanding the collection in meaningful and enduring ways. We look forward to the perspectives she will bring to the Department and to the Museum as a whole.”
Onabanjo commented: “I am honored to join The Met at such a dynamic moment as it looks ahead to the future of Photography in the Museum. The Met’s extraordinary collection and its commitment to presenting art across cultures and time offer a powerful context for rethinking the histories of photography. I look forward to contributing to the Department’s work and to engaging new audiences with the medium.”
Onabanjo’s curatorial practice is grounded in a fine-tuned examination of photography’s social, political, and aesthetic dimensions, with a particular commitment to the medium’s history across the African continent and African Diaspora, and its entanglement in forms of visuality, knowledge production, and archival formation across the globe. First joining The Museum of Modern Art in 2021 as an Associate Curator, Onabanjo has served as The Peter Schub Curator in the Robert B. Menschel Department of Photography since 2024, where she oversees the Museum’s collection of more than 35,000 photographs spanning the history of the medium.
At MoMA, she spearheaded major acquisitions which have broadened and deepened the Museum’s engagement with image-makers across the globe such as Gabrielle Goliath, Aline Motta, Marilyn Nance, Silvia Rosi, Eslanda Robeson, and Zofia Rydet. She also served on the Museum’s Early Modern Working Group (which she co-chaired from 2022–2024) and was instrumental in integrating photography into the ongoing reinstallation of the Museum’s collection through evolving presentations such as A Little Gallery of the Photo-Secession, Ernest Cole’s House of Bondage, The City as Spectacle, and Visual Vernaculars. Her exhibitions and collaborations include New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging (2025); New Photography 2023: Kelani Abass, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Yagazie Emezi, Amanda Iheme, Abraham Oghobase, Karl Ohiri, Logo Oluwamuyiwa (2023); Projects: Ming Smith (2023); as well as Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, on view through July 25, 2026.
Prior to her tenure at MoMA, Onabanjo served on the curatorial team for the 8th Triennial of Photography Hamburg (2021) and was the Director of Exhibitions & Collections at The Walther Collection in New York, where she oversaw a dynamic acquisition, exhibition, research, and publication program committed to a critical engagement with historical and contemporary photography across the globe. Onabanjo has taught and lectured widely on international histories of photography, including at Yale University, NYU’s Institute for Fine Arts, University of California Berkeley, Instituto Moreira Salles, and FOAM Photography Museum, and her writing is featured in catalogues published by The Art Institute of Chicago, Aperture Foundation, Jeu de Paume, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and the São Paulo Bienal among others. She is the author of Ming Smith: Invisible Man, Somewhere Everywhere (2023) and the editor of Marilyn Nance: Last Day in Lagos (2022). Onabanjo was the inaugural recipient of the Vilcek Foundation Prize for Curatorial Work (2025) and a 2024 Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow. She sits on the Photography Advisory Board of the Istanbul Modern. Onabanjo holds a PhD in art history and a BA in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African studies from Columbia University, and an MSc in visual, material, and museum anthropology from Oxford University.
Credit: artdaily
