The Met Hires Moma's Star Photography Curator Oluremi C. Onabanjo

(MENAFN- USA Art News) The Metropolitan Museum of Art turns to one of photography's most closely watched curators for a newly created post.

The museum has hired Oluremi C. Onabanjo as curator in its Department of Photographs, with her appointment set to begin this summer. The role is centered on the Walther Collection, a 2025 gift to the Met of more than 6,500 historical and contemporary photographs and albums spanning Africa, China, Japan, Germany, Mexico, and the United States, among other regions. Onabanjo is already familiar with the collection, having previously served as director of exhibitions and collections for its New York outpost.

Her responsibilities will extend beyond stewardship of the gift. Onabanjo will curate the Met's second exhibition devoted to the Walther Collection, scheduled for 2028, while also helping shape the department's broader photography program. The museum currently has a smaller exhibition drawn from the gift on view.

The appointment arrives as the Met prepares for the Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, slated to open in 2030. According to the museum, the new wing is part of a larger effort to expand the Department of Photographs and to position photography as a key medium in how art from the late 19th century to the present is presented across the institution. In that context, Onabanjo's remit suggests a curatorial strategy that is not only collection-based, but increasingly cross-departmental.

In a statement, Onabanjo said she was“honored to join The Met at such a dynamic moment” and described the museum's collection and cross-cultural scope as a framework for rethinking photography's histories. Met director and CEO Max Hollein called her“among the most compelling voices in contemporary photography today,” citing her scholarship and curatorial vision.

Onabanjo comes to the Met from the Museum of Modern Art, where she is currently a photography curator. She joined MoMA in 2021 as an associate curator and was promoted to The Peter Schub Curator in 2024. There, she organized the 2023 edition of New Photography, co-curated the 2025 iteration, and mounted a solo exhibition for Ming Smith. She also worked on Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination, on view through July 25, and acquired works by Gabrielle Goliath, Aline Motta, Marilyn Nance, Silvia Rosi, Eslanda Robeson, and Zofia Rydet.

Her move underscores how major museums are increasingly treating photography not as a supporting medium, but as a central lens through which to rethink modern and contemporary art.

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