Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa

Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa (born 1980)^[1] is a Ugandan-born^[2] British photographer, writer, and educator, living in the USA.^[3] His series One Wall a Web has been shown in a solo exhibition at Light Work in New York and the book of the work won the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award's First PhotoBook Award.^[4][5]

Life and work

Wolukau-Wanambwa was born in Uganda^[2] and grew up in the UK.^[3] He obtained a BA in Philosophy and French from the University of Oxford, UK and an MFA in Photography from Virginia Commonwealth University.^[6]

He has lived in the USA since 2012^[3] and as of 2021 was living in Rhode Island.^[7] He has lectured at Yale University, Cornell University, New York University, The New School,^[8] and State University of New York at Purchase;^[3] and been director of the photography MFA at Rhode Island School of Design.^[9]

The book One Wall a Web (2018) includes two photographic series made by Wolukau-Wanambwa in the USA—Our Present Invention (2012–2014) and All My Gone Life (2014–2017)—as well as an extensive essay and appropriated archival images.^[3][10] It "draws together poetry, critical writing, and photography to reflect on the ways that race, gender, and violence are woven into the fabric of (white) Western modernity. Set in America – with its history of injustice and its troubled present – One Wall a Web asks how documentary photography both participates in this complex play of forces, and suggests ways that we might find alternative pathways through it."^[11]

Publications

Books by Wolukau-Wanambwa

• One Wall A Web. Amsterdam: Roma, 2018. ISBN 978-9492811226. Photographs and an essay by Wolukau-Wanambwa as well as appropriated archival images.^[3][10]
• Hiding in Plain Sight. Harun Farocki Institute; Motto, 2020. Co-authored with Ben Alper. ISBN 978-2940672073.
• The Lives of Images, Vol. 1: Repetition, Reproduction, and Circulation. Aperture Reader Series. New York: Aperture, 2021. Edited by Wolukau-Wanambwa. ISBN 9781597115025.
• Dark Mirrors. London: Mack, 2021. ISBN 978-1-913620-39-4. Sixteen essays by Wolukau-Wanambwa on Deana Lawson, Dana Lixenberg, Paul Pfeiffer, Arthur Jafa, Katy Grannan, Jason Koxvold, Robert Bergman and others.

Books with contributions by Wolukau-Wanambwa

• Knives, Jason Koxvold. New York: Gnomic Book, 2017. ISBN 978-0998518022.
• The Image of Whiteness: Contemporary Photography and Racialization. London: Self Publish, Be Happy, 2019. Edited by Daniel C. Blight. ISBN 978-1999814496.^[12]
• But Still, It Turns. Edited by Paul Graham. London: Mack, 2021. ISBN 978-1-912339-95-2. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the International Center of Photography, New York, 2021.^[7]

Awards

• Winner, First PhotoBook Award, Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award for One Wall a Web^[5]

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• One Wall a Web, Light Work, Syracuse, New York.^[4]

Group exhibitions

• Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York, 2020/21^[13][14]
• But Still, It Turns: Recent Photography from the World, International Center of Photography, New York, 2021. Curated by Paul Graham.^[7][15][16]