Deep Dive: Spotlighting BIPOC photographers in the Photography Collection

The photography collection of the Weltmuseum Wien contains a single photograph by a Black artist from a country on the African continent: Taken by Nigerian photographer Jonathan Adagogo Green (1873-1905), the photograph depicts the King of Benin, captured during the British punitive expedition of 1897. While thousands of photographs in the collection map every single corner of the African continent, almost all of them, except for Green’s, were taken and/or collected by photographers who identified as white. This image’s singular status is thus indicative of the power asymmetries and the representational imbalances at the very core of the collection, which are also palpable in its ecosystem.

In honor of Black History Month, Hanin Hannouch, curator of analog and digital media (photography, film, and sound collections), warmly invites the public to a special guided tour. This tour not only highlights Green’s photograph, but also uses its presence as a lens to center on extant BIPOC photographers in the collection such as Lala Deen Dayal (1844-1905), Juliana Dilenius (1884-1949), Ogawa Kazumasa (1860-1929), etc. Visitors will behold the historical photographs, learn more about the stories behind the images, their creators, and contexts, as well as freely share their impressions with the curator, at their convenience. 

This special guided tour of the Weltmuseum Wien’s photography collection positions the museum’s selective visibility as an impetus to critically reflect upon how mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion structure the institution’s vast holdings. It is a long overdue necessity and obligation to celebrate the lives and legacies of BIPOC photographers as well as to zoom in on the impact they had and continue to have on the medium and its history – an impact often dismissed and erased by institutions in the Global North.

The tour takes place behind the scenes of the museum.

Dr. Hanin Hannouch (she-her) is curator of analog and digital media at the Weltmuseum Wien where she is responsible for the photography, film, and sound collections. She is the editor of the first volume on interferential colour photography Gabriel Lippmann's Colour Photography: Science, Media, Museums (Amsterdam University Press, 2022). She was postdoctoral researcher at the Ethnologisches Museum – Berlin State Museums and at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz / Max-PlanckInstitut. She earned her PhD from IMT Lucca, Scuola Alti Studi (2017) after completing an international Masters in art history and museology (IMKM) at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris and the University of Heidelberg in Germany (2014), as well as another Masters (2012) and a Bachelors in European art history-focusing on art in the twentieth century at the Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik in Lebanon.  

Our Deep Dive format offers exactly what the name promises: deep insights into the working world of the Weltmuseum Wien, from the conservation department to our curatorial staff. This series also includes talks with artists, scientists, and personalities from various fields of knowledge on selected objects and topics. Our aim is to use the Weltmuseum Wien as a lively place of exchange and to confront the socio-political discourses and challenges that open up new perspectives on an extraordinary collection.

Duration: 60 min
Participation: € 9 (valid museum ticket required)
Tickets are available online or at the ticket office, while stocks last
Meeting place: Hall of Columns