This overflow of people, mostly men, are pictured from above. They seem to encircle a high-roofed building, behind which the sky is dense with smoke. They are seen from a reasonably distanced position, indicated by the degree to which their individual comportments can be distinguished. There’s the man who stands with his hands across his chest, another whose hands are pocketed, another who tilts his head towards the camera, a cluster of three in wide-brimmed hats… What’s notable, equally, is how each man or teenager is left to his person, emptied of any possession besides a free hand and an assortment of clothes. To what or who or when do we owe their presence?

— Emmanuel Iduma

I liked Somalia – made friends – fleeting one - but firm – and I regret the fleetingness and the hopelessness of never seeing them again. The Somalis are most hospitable and generous.

— Todd Webb (Journal Entry, 19 June 1958)

Webb left New York City for Lomé, Togo on April 11th by way of Paris. Outfitted with three cameras and charged with imaging industrial progress, he amassed approximately 2000 photographs over five months. Webb’s 35mm Kodacolor and Agfa negatives from this trip present early color images of eight countries at the interstices of colonialism and independence. As the first large scale example of color photographs in Webb’s oeuvre, these images stand out from his well-known street photography of New York and Paris. In his representation of a transitional period in 20th-century African history, Webb brought a curious mind and eager eye to this project. This process was inevitably complicated by the nature of his privilege, as an American photographer working for an international organization and “seeing Africa” (as he describes it in his journal) for the first time.

— Aimée Bessire and Erin Hyde Nolan, from the introduction to Todd Webb in Africa: Outside the Frame.

Grateful acknowledgement to the Todd Webb Archive for their permission to republish this photograph. Learn more about Todd Webb’s life and archive here.