• Malick Sidibé / Archives

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Photo

  • Malick Sidibé photographed in front of his own backdrop, in his studio in Bamako.


    Bamako - Mali - 01/01/70

  • Malick Sidibé photographing in his studio in Bamako.


    Bamako - Mali - 01/01/70

  • Shelf with old cameras in Malick Sidibé's studio in Bamako. When work was slow he also worked as a camera repairman.


    Bamako - Mali - 01/01/70

  • Malick Sidibé in his studio in Bamako.


    Bamako - Mali - 01/01/70

  • Malick Sidibé showing one of the albums where he kept his older images. In his studio in Bamako.


    Bamako - Mali - 01/01/70

  • Malick Sidibé in his studio in Bamako.


    Bamako - Mali - 01/01/70

  • Malick Sidibé's camera and hat, in his studio in Bamako.


    Bamako - Mali - 01/01/70

Story

I had spent the previous three months in the northern part of Mali, right by the Algerian border, teaching French in the very first Tuareg school. During that time i had gotten married with my girlfriend who would later become the mother of my twins, Pablo and Mila. Back in Bamako after this long journey we went to the studio of Malick Sidibé so that he could do an "official wedding portrait" for us. A friend had to lend me his most elegant traditional boubou for the event. Ensued a long a funny back and forth exchange between Bamako and Paris via my tuareg friend, first to see a selection of the photos (actual 4x6 prints), second to get the final print from M. Sidibé.

The studio was filled with albums of older photographs (a form later reproduced in a Steidl publication) and out-of-order cameras as M. Sidibé was an occasional repairman, when work was slow in photography. Needless to say we stretched the afternoon on his studio porch, drinking the mandatory tea...

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