Makeda Best Appointed MoMA’s Next Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography

The Museum of Modern Art announces the appointment of Makeda Best as the next Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography. MoMA has exhibited and collected photography since its founding in 1929, and formally established a Department of Photography in 1940. When she joins MoMA in September 2026, Best will lead a department with a renowned legacy and an unparalleled collection of more than 30,000 works that continues to play a defining global role in exploring photography’s diverse and powerful impacts on modern life. She will guide all aspects of the department, including its installations, acquisitions, exhibitions, publications, and loan programs. Best succeeds Clément Chéroux, who served as chief curator from 2020 to 2022 and now directs the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris. Roxana Marcoci, MoMA’s David Dechman Senior Curator of Photography, has served as the acting chief curator in the interim.

“After an extensive international search, we are thrilled to welcome Makeda as the new Ehrenkranz Chief Curator of Photography,” said Christophe Cherix, the David Rockefeller Director of MoMA. “Makeda’s distinguished career as a curator, scholar, and institutional leader—spanning major collections at Harvard and Oakland—brings a fresh vision to the field. She champions photography’s singular power to connect with audiences through storytelling, seamlessly crossing boundaries into sociology, environmentalism, performance art, labor, and civic life.”

“MoMA is one of the only institutions in the world with the platform and the commitment to photography that these times demand,” said Best. “I am deeply honored to join the Museum, to work alongside its extraordinary team, and to leverage and grow its collection. Photography is vital to understanding who we are as a society. I look forward to pursuing new research, and to helping audiences develop the visual and critical tools needed to navigate this complex world.”