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©Malick Sibidé / gwinzegal / diChroma photography |
Malick Sidibé has documented a very important period in African history with a huge sense of commitment and enthusiasm, focusing on youth in Mali in the 50s and 60s. His portraits and documentary photography captured the unique atmosphere and the vitality of an African capital in the grip of a period of high euphoria.
From the very early days of the post-colonial era, Sidibé was a privileged witness to enormous cultural change. As a young, although already recognised, photographer, he captured a time of paradigmatic change and youthful insolence, marked by great curiosity about the rest of the world, and pride and confidence in the future.
Sidibé learnt the basic techniques of studio photography as an apprentice and afterwards started to make reports on street life. Since then, he has been immersed in photography. His portraits and photographs from the start of the 1950s to the mid-1970s now bear
documentary witness to the social and cultural development of the early years of independence in Mali. |
His photos are portraits filled with psychological detail, where we see joy, hope, beauty and power. Sidibé's work, which was originally meant for the African
public, provides historic recollections and unique testimony for the whole world.
Shortly after starting up his studio in 1962, he was required to attend all the events and ceremonies in Mali, including football matches, weddings, Christmas festivities and parties organised by young people in clubs. The clubs were called after idols and western styles (The Cubans, The Caids, Las Vegas, etc.), which were just becoming known in Bamako.When independence came to Mali, it brought not only a breath of freedom and daring, as well as "communist friendship with other brother countries", but also the dreams of a western
society. Sidibé could make up to five reports in a night before going back to the studio to develop his film. Afterwards, he numbered and organised the reports into folders which acted as an album. On the following day, people came to the studio to choose the photos they wished to buy.
These are the "chemises" displayed in this exhibition. Later, in the mid-1970s, the young people stopped going to clubs and started to frequent night clubs, a scene far removed from
Sidibé's interests. From that time on, he focused on studio work.
 diChroma photography
This exhibition is organized by diChroma photography,
Paseo de los Parques, 27-8B 28109 Alcobendas-Madrid-Spain
www.dichroma-photography.com |
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Number of photographs: 52 B&W photographs and 15 vintage folio pages
Frame sizes:
photographs 22x22 inches and folio pages 12x16 inches
Rental fee: $11,000 for 12 weeks |
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