Little Histories of Photography: Critical Reflections on MoMA

This is the second lecture in the AY26 Graduate Studies Interdisplinary Speaker Series.

What is the curator’s role in writing critical histories of photography? This lecture, entitled "Little Histories of Photography: Critical Reflections on The Museum of Modern Art," addresses the discursive limits and possibilities of curatorial work within an institutional context. Maintaining a sensitivity to form and substance, I assess the methodological stakesof unsettling the so-called major histories of the photographic medium.

Oluremi C. Onabanjo is The Peter Schub Curator of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, where she manages MoMA's holdings of over 35,000 photographs spanning the history of the medium. Her recent exhibitions and collaborations include Ernest Cole's House of Bondage, Projects: Ming Smith, and New Photography 2023. Currently on view is A Little Gallery of the Photo-Secession and New Photography 2025.

Onabanjo was the inaugural recipient of the Vilcek Prize in Curatorial Work (2025) and a 2024 Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow. She sits on the Photography Advisory Board of the Istanbul Modern and is a core member of the C-MAP Africa Research Group. She is the author of Ming Smith: Invisible Man, Somewhere Everywhere and the editor of Marilyn Nance: Last Day in Lagos. Onabanjo holds a PhD in Art History from Columbia University.