Group show
"The Future is Blinking": Early Studio Photography from West and Central Africa
18 Mar 2022 — 3 Jul 2022 at Museum Rietberg
· Zurich
"The Future is Blinking" is a temporary exhibition at the Rietberg Museum presenting early studio photography from West and Central Africa.
The show brings together remarkable photographs made in professional studios across the region, offering a window into how individuals and communities chose to present themselves to the camera — and to the world. These images challenge colonial visual narratives and reveal a vibrant, self-determined culture of portraiture that flourished long before photography from Africa gained widespread international recognition.
Through carefully composed studio portraits, visitors encounter the elegance, ambition, and modernity that defined everyday life and aspirations across West and Central Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The show brings together remarkable photographs made in professional studios across the region, offering a window into how individuals and communities chose to present themselves to the camera — and to the world. These images challenge colonial visual narratives and reveal a vibrant, self-determined culture of portraiture that flourished long before photography from Africa gained widespread international recognition.
Through carefully composed studio portraits, visitors encounter the elegance, ambition, and modernity that defined everyday life and aspirations across West and Central Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
About the venue
Museum Rietberg
· Zurich
The Rietberg Museum is a museum in Zürich, Switzerland, displaying Asian, African, American and Oceanian art. It is the largest art museum focusing on non-European art and design in Switzerland, the third-largest museum in Zürich, and the largest to be run by the city itself. In 2007, it received…
