The Best Photo Books of 2017, by Teju Cole, New York Times

The Best Photo Books of 2017, by Teju Cole, New York Times, December 30, 2017

“Daniela Baumann, Joshua Chuang, Oluremi C. Onabanjo, “Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from the Walther Collection.” Steidl, 384 pages, 110 images.

“Great” artists seem suddenly to appear by some mysterious consensus, but of course the mystery is not that deep: Exhibitions, publications, reviews and other forms of attention form artistic canons. The Walther Collection, through collection and exhibitions, has been making signal contributions to contemporary African photography for some years now, and this catalog features the work of 14 young photographers, many of whom are thinking about questions of landscape and cityscape. Names like Mame-Diarra Niang (who was raised in Senegal, Ivory Coast and France), Dawit L. Petros (from Eritrea) and Mimi Cherono Ng’ok (from Kenya) — all three of them exciting, brainy photographers — might well be among the ones we find ourselves reckoning with in coming years.”