Pelicans of Color Reception 2026: Night at The Museum

Imani Williford is a writer and Curatorial Assistant for Photography, Fashion and Material Culture at the Brooklyn Museum. Since joining BKM in 2022 she has worked on numerous exhibitions, including Thierry Mugler: Couturissime (2022 - 2023), Jamel Shabazz: Faces and Places, 1980–2023 (2023), Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines (2023 - 2024) and Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit (2025). She received her BA in the History of Art from the University of Pittsburgh and her MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art. In 2024 she was selected to join the inaugural cohort for Arts Leadership Praxis at the Studio Museum in Harlem. She has contributed writing for Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Museum and the University of Pittsburgh.

Encounter an artist who changed the face of portrait photography. Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens is the most expansive North American exhibition of the legendary Malian photographer’s work to date. More than 280 works include iconic prints, never-before-seen portraits, textiles, and Keïta’s personal artifacts, all brought to life with unique insights from his family.

Organized by the Brooklyn Museum, the exhibition brings us to Bamako from the late 1940s to early 1960s, an era of profound political and social transformation. Collaborating closely with his sitters, Keïta recorded Mali’s evolution through their choices of backdrops, accessories, and apparel, from traditional finery to European suits. These bold yet sensitive photographs began to circulate in West Africa nearly 80 years ago. In the early 1990s, they reached Western viewers, rocking the art world and cementing Keïta as the premier studio photographer of 20th-century Africa—a peer of August Sander, Irving Penn, and Richard Avedon.

Witness the power of photography through these richly layered images, which reveal not only Malians’ emotional landscapes but also the textures of life in a rapidly changing country.

Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum from October 10, 2025 through May 17, 2026, giving you plenty of time to visit on your own.