In April of 2021, the Norton’s Photography Committee acquired a monumental work by Yinka Shonibare CBE, titled Le Méduse. With Shonibare’s work as a catalyst, Origin Stories: Photography of Africa and Its Diaspora confronts the intertwined relationship between identity and colonialism in communities across the African continent and throughout the African diaspora. 

Featuring works primarily from the Norton’s collection, this selection of works offers perspectives from celebrated photographers working in Africa, the Americas, the Caribbean, and Europe such as Les sœurs Chevalme, Delphine Fawundu, Ana Mendieta, Malick Sidibé, and Carrie Mae Weems.