Virtual Perspectives Talk: The Photography of Todd Webb Outside the Frame

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This event takes place from 6 to 7 PM CST.

Mia’s special exhibition “Todd Webb in Africa: Outside the Frame” features recently recovered early color photographs by the American documentary photographer, which were commissioned by the United Nations in 1958 to document emerging industries and technologies throughout the continent of Africa. While Webb’s photographs present an outsider’s view onto the social, political, and cultural dynamics on the continent at a critical period between colonialism and independence, he resisted essentializing and exoticizing frameworks in order to create complex images of countries on the cusp of change. At the same time, his photographs raise important questions concerning photographic agency and power, racial and national privilege, and the ways in which Euro-Americans conceived of modernization at a crucial period in Africa’s history.

In this roundtable discussion, community members Aziz Osman and Fatuma Elmi, Kofi Odoom, Gladstone Sabah, and Andrea Mwalilino, who have roots in Somalia, Ghana, Togo, and Tanzania–all countries on Webb’s itinerary–reflect on the photographer’s depictions of their homelands and engage questions central to the history of documentary photography in Africa.

“Todd Webb in Africa: Outside the Frame” is on view in Mia’s Harrison Gallery through Sunday, June 13, 2021. Learn more and visit the online exhibition here.