All Writing
I. Contributions to Books & Catalogues
“An Artist in Progress,” in Victor Ehikhamenor: Chronicles of the Enchanted World (Prestel Publishing, 2025)
“Theo Eshetu’s ‘The Return of the Aksum Obelisk,’” in Africa and Byzantium (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024)
“If I Were an Artist,” in Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography edited by Ariella Azoulay, Wendy Ewald, Leigh Raford, Susan Meiselas, and Laura Wexler (Thames and Hudson, 2023)
“Transitions: A Commentary on Cities,” in A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography (Tate Publishing, 2023)
“Hope is the Song,” in Emeka Ogboh: This Too Shall Pass (Kerber, 2022)
“Mileage from Here: Nine Narratives,” in Todd Webb in Africa: Outside the Frame (Thames & Hudson, 2021)
“What Will Tutuola Do,” in Parapolitics: Cultural Freedom and the Cold War (Stenberg Press, 2021).
“Story of Many,” in Namsa Leuba: Crossed Looks (Damiani, 2021)
“As Seen from a Distance,” in Ming Smith: An Aperture Monograph (Aperture/Documentary Arts, 2020)
Introduction to a new edition of People of the City by Cyprian Ekwensi(NYRB Classics, 2020)
“To the Follower of Chiekh Amadou Bamba I Met in Dakar,” in Best American Travel Writing 2020 (HMH Books, 2020). Also anthologized in Letters to a Stranger (edited by Coleen Kinder, Algonquin Books, 2022)
“Aftermath,” and “Archive,” in Simon Njami and Sean O’Toole, editors, The Journey: New Positions in African Photography (Kerber Verlag, 2020)
“Rendezvous,” in Jo Ratcliffe: Photographs 1980s–Now (Steidl, 2020)
“Elsewheres,” in Practice Space ([NAME] Publications/De Appel, 2020)
“Measures of Power,” in FESTAC ’77 (Chimurenga/Afterall Books2019)
“Letters to Lina Iris Viktor II,” in Some are Born to Endless Night, (Autograph, 2019)
“Letters to Lina Iris Viktor,” in Lina Iris Viktor: A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred, (Skira, 2019)
“Being With,” in you are so loved and lovely (Fridman Gallery, 2019)
“Glossary,” in Lorenzo Vitturi, Money Must Be Made (Self Publish Be Happy, 2017)
“Here Comes the Stranger: On The Stranger’s Notebook by Dawit L. Petros at the Kansas City Art Institute,” exhibition brochure (2016)
“Even Walls,” in Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from the Walther Collection (The Walther Collection, 2017)
“Who No Go No Know,” in The Africans (Kulte Gallery, 2016)
“In Conversation with François-Xavier Gbré,” in François-Xavier Gbré: The Past is a Foreign Country (Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, 2015)
“Fugitive Histories,” in Dancers, Buildings, and People in the Streets (Danspace Project, 2015)
“Guitar Boy,” in Daughters of Eve and Other New Short Stories from Nigeria (Nottingham: Critical, Cultural and Communications Press, 2010)
“A Dying God,” in Speaking for the Generations: An Anthology of Contemporary African Short Stories (New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2010)
II. Essays, Stories, and Reviews in Periodicals
“The Money Islands.” Introduction to a photo-essay by Mathias Depardon. Virginia Quarterly Review. (Spring 2024)
“Learning from Lagos: Lessons from the Megalopolis’s Growing Art Scene.” Art in America. (April 2024)
“The 25 Photos That Defined the Modern Age.” Short captions on 9 photographs in the series. T Magazine/ New York Times. (June 3, 2024)
“What Would It Mean for Nigeria to Elect an Igbo President?” in Foreign Policy (February 25, 2023)
“Emmanuel Iduma Recommends…” in Poets and Writers (February 2, 2023)
“Balance of Stories,” Guest critic of the Nov. 2022 issue of Brooklyn Rail. (Nov. 2022)
“Post-Continental: Contemporary African Photography,” in Art in America (May 2021)
“How Desire Holds a Plea,” in Extra Extra (Issue 16, April 2021)
“9 Primers,” in Brooklyn Rail (March 2021)
“Another Country: On the Kamoinge Workshop,” in Artforum (October/November 2020)
“Beyond the Sea,” in Art in America (May 2019).
“What Would Tutuola Do?” in Tate Papers (November 2018)
“Photographer of Bonny,” in Art in America (May 2018).
“My Life as a Wave,” photographs and a short essay (on itinerancy, unsheltered life, etc.) in Open Space, guest-edited by ARTS.BLACK (2017)
“The Spiritual Photographs Khadija Saye Left Behind,” in Hyperallergic (2017)
For the project “Photographie et Oralité Dialogues à Bamako, Dakar et ailleurs, 2011–2015,” a narrative essay, “My Heart Is as Brief as Photos,” (2016)
“The Wealth of Nations,” (On the work of Victor Ehikhamenor) in Guernica(2016)
“Malick Sidibé, Always” in Okayafrica(2016)
“In Multiple Dimensions: On Photography from Africa and the African Diaspora, in New York,” in ARTNews(Summer 2016)
“Recent Histories: On Recent Histories at the Walther Collection,” in ARTNews, Spring 2017
“The Promise of Mutability,” in Brooklyn Rail (December 2016)
“Shifting States,” in Guernica (2015)
“An Imagination of Terror,” in Africanah(2015).
“Glancing Subjects: on Drawings by Victor Ehikhamenor,” in Africanah(2015)
“Ingrid Winterbach’s The Elusive Moth” in Music & Literature (2014)
“Notes on Double Negative by Ivan Vladislavić,“ in Africanah(2014)
“Sentences for Carrie Mea Weems,” in Africanah (2014)
“In the Interests of the Future of Photography,” in Africanah(2014)
“The Self-Portraits of Samuel Fosso,” in Guernica(2014)
“Life Performs Itself,” a tribute to Ray Daniels Okeugo in Contemporary And (2013)
“An Artist in Progress,” in Victor Ehikhamenor: Chronicles of the Enchanted World (Prestel Publishing, 2025)
“Theo Eshetu’s ‘The Return of the Aksum Obelisk,’” in Africa and Byzantium (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024)
“If I Were an Artist,” in Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography edited by Ariella Azoulay, Wendy Ewald, Leigh Raford, Susan Meiselas, and Laura Wexler (Thames and Hudson, 2023)
“Transitions: A Commentary on Cities,” in A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography (Tate Publishing, 2023)
“Hope is the Song,” in Emeka Ogboh: This Too Shall Pass (Kerber, 2022)
“Mileage from Here: Nine Narratives,” in Todd Webb in Africa: Outside the Frame (Thames & Hudson, 2021)
“What Will Tutuola Do,” in Parapolitics: Cultural Freedom and the Cold War (Stenberg Press, 2021).
“Story of Many,” in Namsa Leuba: Crossed Looks (Damiani, 2021)
“As Seen from a Distance,” in Ming Smith: An Aperture Monograph (Aperture/Documentary Arts, 2020)
Introduction to a new edition of People of the City by Cyprian Ekwensi(NYRB Classics, 2020)
“To the Follower of Chiekh Amadou Bamba I Met in Dakar,” in Best American Travel Writing 2020 (HMH Books, 2020). Also anthologized in Letters to a Stranger (edited by Coleen Kinder, Algonquin Books, 2022)
“Aftermath,” and “Archive,” in Simon Njami and Sean O’Toole, editors, The Journey: New Positions in African Photography (Kerber Verlag, 2020)
“Rendezvous,” in Jo Ratcliffe: Photographs 1980s–Now (Steidl, 2020)
“Elsewheres,” in Practice Space ([NAME] Publications/De Appel, 2020)
“Measures of Power,” in FESTAC ’77 (Chimurenga/Afterall Books2019)
“Letters to Lina Iris Viktor II,” in Some are Born to Endless Night, (Autograph, 2019)
“Letters to Lina Iris Viktor,” in Lina Iris Viktor: A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred, (Skira, 2019)
“Being With,” in you are so loved and lovely (Fridman Gallery, 2019)
“Glossary,” in Lorenzo Vitturi, Money Must Be Made (Self Publish Be Happy, 2017)
“Here Comes the Stranger: On The Stranger’s Notebook by Dawit L. Petros at the Kansas City Art Institute,” exhibition brochure (2016)
“Even Walls,” in Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from the Walther Collection (The Walther Collection, 2017)
“Who No Go No Know,” in The Africans (Kulte Gallery, 2016)
“In Conversation with François-Xavier Gbré,” in François-Xavier Gbré: The Past is a Foreign Country (Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, 2015)
“Fugitive Histories,” in Dancers, Buildings, and People in the Streets (Danspace Project, 2015)
“Guitar Boy,” in Daughters of Eve and Other New Short Stories from Nigeria (Nottingham: Critical, Cultural and Communications Press, 2010)
“A Dying God,” in Speaking for the Generations: An Anthology of Contemporary African Short Stories (New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2010)
II. Essays, Stories, and Reviews in Periodicals
“The Money Islands.” Introduction to a photo-essay by Mathias Depardon. Virginia Quarterly Review. (Spring 2024)
“Learning from Lagos: Lessons from the Megalopolis’s Growing Art Scene.” Art in America. (April 2024)
“The 25 Photos That Defined the Modern Age.” Short captions on 9 photographs in the series. T Magazine/ New York Times. (June 3, 2024)
“What Would It Mean for Nigeria to Elect an Igbo President?” in Foreign Policy (February 25, 2023)
“Emmanuel Iduma Recommends…” in Poets and Writers (February 2, 2023)
“Balance of Stories,” Guest critic of the Nov. 2022 issue of Brooklyn Rail. (Nov. 2022)
“Post-Continental: Contemporary African Photography,” in Art in America (May 2021)
“How Desire Holds a Plea,” in Extra Extra (Issue 16, April 2021)
“9 Primers,” in Brooklyn Rail (March 2021)
“Another Country: On the Kamoinge Workshop,” in Artforum (October/November 2020)
“Beyond the Sea,” in Art in America (May 2019).
“What Would Tutuola Do?” in Tate Papers (November 2018)
“Photographer of Bonny,” in Art in America (May 2018).
“My Life as a Wave,” photographs and a short essay (on itinerancy, unsheltered life, etc.) in Open Space, guest-edited by ARTS.BLACK (2017)
“The Spiritual Photographs Khadija Saye Left Behind,” in Hyperallergic (2017)
For the project “Photographie et Oralité Dialogues à Bamako, Dakar et ailleurs, 2011–2015,” a narrative essay, “My Heart Is as Brief as Photos,” (2016)
“The Wealth of Nations,” (On the work of Victor Ehikhamenor) in Guernica(2016)
“Malick Sidibé, Always” in Okayafrica(2016)
“In Multiple Dimensions: On Photography from Africa and the African Diaspora, in New York,” in ARTNews(Summer 2016)
“Recent Histories: On Recent Histories at the Walther Collection,” in ARTNews, Spring 2017
“The Promise of Mutability,” in Brooklyn Rail (December 2016)
“Shifting States,” in Guernica (2015)
“An Imagination of Terror,” in Africanah(2015).
“Glancing Subjects: on Drawings by Victor Ehikhamenor,” in Africanah(2015)
“Ingrid Winterbach’s The Elusive Moth” in Music & Literature (2014)
“Notes on Double Negative by Ivan Vladislavić,“ in Africanah(2014)
“Sentences for Carrie Mea Weems,” in Africanah (2014)
“In the Interests of the Future of Photography,” in Africanah(2014)
“The Self-Portraits of Samuel Fosso,” in Guernica(2014)
“Life Performs Itself,” a tribute to Ray Daniels Okeugo in Contemporary And (2013)