Gates Cambridge: Class of 2024

Emannuel Iduma

Emannuel Iduma, from Nigeria, who is pursuing a PhD in Digital Humanities.After qualifying as a lawyer in Nigeria, he studied art criticism and writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Over the past 15 years, he has developed a diverse body of work that spans criticism, memoir, photography and fiction, including three books and a digital platform for African photography, as well as varied editorial and curatorial projects.

He says: "In my writing, criticism, and curatorial work to date, I have been interested in the ways photographs explore human dignity in complex ways. I am grateful to come to Cambridge as a Gates Scholar, and as part of the inaugural cohort of a PhD in Digital Humanities. While here, I intend to use computer vision techniques to explore how the circulation of conflict photographs shapes perception, especially about the African continent. I hope, in addition, to develop a curatorial and ethical framework for engaging with photographs in an age of misinformation and AI-generated imagery.