Samuel Fosso and Sanlé Sory at the Museum of Modern Art

Photographs by Samuel Fosso and Sanlé Sory are included in the exhbition Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, which opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, on December 14, 2025, on view through April 4, 2026.

 

Together, the works included in the show examine how photographers and their sitters contributed to growing Pan-African solidarity in the mid-20th century, gathering striking images from across Central and West African cities, including images by Sory alongside those by Jean Depara, Seydou Keïta, and Malick Sidibé. These practices are positioned to show the parallels between contemporaneous waves of decolonial action in Africa and the Civil Rights movements in the United States. The enduring relevance of these themes is made evident through the works of international and contemporary photographers, which includes images by Fosso among works by James Barnor, Kwame Braithwaite, Silvia Rosi, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby.

 

Find out more on MoMA's website.

Opening December 15, 2025