The Met Hires Star Photography Curator for the Museum’s New Wing
15April 10, 2026
TheMetropolitan Museum of Arthas hired a star photography curator away from MoMA,Artnewsreports. Oluremi C. Onabanjo, formerly the Museum of Modern Art’s Peter Schub Curator, will join the Met as its new curator in the Department of Photographs.
“I am honored to join The Met at such a dynamic moment as it looks ahead to the future of Photography in the Museum,” Onabanjo said in a statement. “The Met’s extraordinary collection and its commitment to presenting art across cultures and time offer a powerful context for rethinking the histories of photography.”
Onabanjo’s appointment is part of a “broader effort to build out the Department of Photographs as we look ahead to the Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art,” a spokesperson for the Met said in a statement.
Onabanjo’s chief preoccupation will be with the management of a landmark gift of over 6,500 photographs made to the Met in 2025 by photographer Artur Walther and the Walther Family Foundation. The Walther Collection is incredibly wide-ranging, and features ninth- and twentieth-century vernacular photographs from the United States, Europe, Colombia, and Mexico; as well as modern and contemporary art from Japan, Germany and other places. Onabanjo will also curate wider-ranging exhibitions outside the Walther Collection, with a focus on twentieth-century media.
“Oluremi C. Onabanjo is among the most compelling voices in contemporary photography today,” Met director and CEO Max Hollein said in a statement. “Her scholarship and curatorial vision reflect a deep engagement with the histories of the medium and a thoughtful approach to the ways photography shapes our understanding of the world. As we look toward the future of art at The Met—including the development of the Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art—Onabanjo’s perspective will be invaluable in advancing a more expansive and globally connected narrative of art, fostering new dialogues across departments, cultures, and time.”
The Met’s Tang Wing, scheduled to open in 2030, is being designed by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo—the first woman to design a new wing in the Met’s history.