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Emmanuel Iduma




Criticism








Art Criticism



“Balance of Stories.” Guest critic of the Nov. 2022 issue of Brooklyn Rail, featuring 10 Nigerian writers.

“The Afterlives of the Colonial Gaze,” “Bruno Barbey’s Eye Outside the Storm,” and “‘A Moment of Distraction’: Photographing Chinua Achebe.” ArtReview (2022)

“Post-Continental: Contemporary African Photography.” Art in America (2021) 

“Rendezvous: A Fiction.” Jo Ractliffe: Photographs 1980s–Now. (2021). PDF. 

“Mileage from Here: Nine Narratives.” Todd Webb in Africa (2021). PDF. 

“Aftermath,” “Archive.” The Journey: New Positions in African Photography (2020).

“As Seen from a Distance.” Ming Smith: An Aperture Monograph. (2020). PDF.



“Another Country: On the Kamoinge Workshop.” Artforum (2020)



“Italy’s Colonial History in Africa Reframed.” New York Review of Books (2020)



“Elsewheres.” An essay on the art practices in Nigeria. Practice Space (2020).

“Measures of Power.” On 3 photographs depicting power and violence in 1970s Nigeria, in FESTAC ’77 (2019). Read online in the Mail and Guardian.

“The Exchanger.” On the work of Ibrahim Mahama, in Labour of Many. (2019)


“Beyond the Sea.” On Édouard Glissant and Lydia Cabrera. Art in America (2019)



“LagosPhoto.” On the acclaimed photo festival. Aperture (2017)



“Fiction/Non Fiction: On Recent Histories at the Walther Collection.” ARTNews (Spring 2017)



“Even Walls.” Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from the Walther Collection (2017). PDF.



“Making Time.” Catalogue essay, Nigerian pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2017). PDF.



“The Promise of Mutability.” A statement on art criticism. Brooklyn Rail (2016)



“Malick Sidibé, Always.” A tribute on the death of the photographer. Okayafrica (2016)



“In Multiple Dimensions: On Photography from Africa and the African Diaspora, in New York.” ARTNews (Summer 2016)



“Shifting States.” An essay on photographs of Mohammadu Buhari, in Guernica (2015)




On Artists



“Lives of the Past: Annotations on Abraham Oghobase’s Constructed Realities,” in Living With Ghosts: A Reader (2022)

“Infinite Screens.” On Theo Eshetu. Aperture (2021)



“9 Primers: On Uche Okeke’s ‘Natural Synthesis’.” Brooklyn Rail (2021)



“Story of Many.” Namsa Leuba: Crossed Looks (2021).



A conversation with Sir David Adjaye. Aperture (2020)



“Foreigners in a Foreign Land.” On Arguiñe Escandón and Yann Gross. Aperture (2019)



“Letters to Lina Iris Viktor II.” Some are Born to Endless Night (2019).



“Letters to Lina Iris Viktor.” Lina Iris Viktor: A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred (Skira, 2019). Also in BOMB. (2018)



“The Work of Time.” On Victor Ehikhamenor. BOMB. (2018)



“Being With.” On ruby Onyinyechi amanze and Wura Natasha Ogunji. you are so loved and lovely (2019).



“Photographer of Bonny.” On Jonathan Adagogo Green. Art in America (2018)



In Conversation with François-Xavier Gbré. François-Xavier Gbré: The Past is a Foreign Country (2015). PDF.



“The Spiritual Photographs Khadija Saye Left Behind.” Hyperallergic (2017)



“The Wealth of Nations.” On Victor Ehikhamenor. Guernica (2016)



“The Self-Portraits of Samuel Fosso.” Guernica (2014)



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