Malick Sidibé

Malick Sidibé (1935 – 14 April 2016)[1][2] was a Malian photographer from a Fulani (Fula) village in Soloba,[3][4] who was noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s in Bamako, Mali.

His father was a Fula stock breeder, farmer, and skilled hunter named Kolo Barry Sidibé.

[16] In 1955 photographer Gérard Guillat came to the school looking for a student to decorate his studio, eventually hiring Sidibé.

[18] Sidibé took photographs at sport events, the beach, nightclubs, concerts, and even tagged along while the young men seduced girls.

He attributed ending his career in reportagé to fewer club parties, rise in availability of affordable cameras, and the growth of the auto-lab film development industry.

[7] While Sidibé was locally famous for decades, he was not introduced into the Western fine art world until 1994 when he had a chance encounter with French curator André Magnin.

He used an Agfa 6 × 6 camera with bellows to shoot weddings and more formal events, and a Foca Sport 24 x 36 for his more candid work.

Many of those who admire Sidibé's work believe that he somehow captured the joy and wonder of this awakening, and that it is seen in the faces, scenes, and images that he helped to illuminate.

Sidibé became the first African and the first photographer to be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2007.

Robert Storr, the show's artistic director, said: No African artist has done more to enhance photography's stature in the region, contribute to its history, enrich its image archive or increase our awareness of the textures and transformations of African culture in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st than Malick Sidibé.

Sidibé's studio in Bamako , showing his cameras and equipment
Sidibé's negative collection, in his studio in Bamako