Exhibition

The Way She Looks: A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture

Ryerson Image Centre (RIC), Toronto, Canada
11 Sep 2019 - 08 Dec 2019

Jodi Bieber, Babalwa, from the series Real Beauty, 2008, pigment print © The artist. Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

Jodi Bieber, Babalwa, from the series Real Beauty, 2008, pigment print © The artist. Courtesy of the artist and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

Drawn from the extraordinary holdings of The Walther Collection, The Way She Looks revisits the history of African photographic portraiture through the perspectives of women, both as sitters and photographers.

Spanning the beginnings of colonial photography on the continent to the present day, the exhibition features contemporary works by female artists, including Yto Barrada, Jodi Bieber, Lebohang Kganye, Zanele Muholi, Grace Ndiritu, and Nontsikelelo “Lolo” Veleko alongside 1950s studio portraits by such important historical figures as Malick Sidibé and Seydou Keïta, and nineteenth-century prints, cartes de visite, postcards, and albums.

Guest Curator: Sandrine Colard

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