Seydou Keïta

(Bamako, Mali, 1921 - 2001, Paris, France)

Africa, Malian

Many Malians refer to Seydou Keïta as 'the elder', a term signifying all the respect that his countrymen accord to the wisdom of old age. Keïta was born in 1921 in one of the oldest areas of Mali's capital, Bamako, a place paradoxically named 'Bamako coura', or 'new Bamako'. In 1935 he got his first camera. Brought back for him from Senegal by his uncle Tiemoko, it was a Kodak Brownie Flash that took 6x9 photos. His earliest photographs, of his family and friends, were taken whenever he had time off from his job as a cabinet-maker. Eight years later, Keïta converted one of the rooms in the family house into a photography studio. By this time he was well known in Bamako as one of the best photographers in the capital. Keïta loved photography and, after a few years, it became his trade. Though self-taught as a photographer, he had learnt how to develop images under the tutelage of Pierre Garnier, who since 1949 had been the owner of the first photography shop in the Malian capital. Keïta set up his studio in the lively heart of Bamako coura, and quickly became famous for his skills. The town's most prominent figures - shopkeepers, civil servants, elegant women and well-to-do passengers coming off the Dakar-Niger train - all came to have their portrait taken at Keïta's. Even Modibo Keïta, the first president of an independent Mali, posed before his lens. Now recognized as classics of social portraiture, Keïta's photographs resonate on many levels. He had an uncanny knack of capturing the sitter's personality through attention to the precise angle of their heads and the light in their eyes; it has been pointed out that he both captures the way his sitters wish to see themselves, and the way he wishes to present them. In some of his most characteristic and fascinating images, African women sit in stylized groups wearing beautiful, flowing traditional dresses. A master of pattern combination, Keita often set off the clothing's expansive patterning with props and patterned wallpaper, creating an all-over, frieze-like flow of designs that is punctuated by the sitters' expressions and careful self-possession. Assisted by his two apprentices, Malamine Doumbia and Birama Fané, Keïta took his photos by day and developed them by night. 'There were so many customers that, for instance, on Saturdays my apprentices and I worked 48 hours without interruption', reminisces Keita. This discreet, reserved man is proud of having been able to live from his photographer's trade. 'I managed to buy equipment that no-one else had - for example, 9x12 and 13x18 camera chambers, and accessories like European suits, three radios, three Vespas and two cars: a 203 Peugeot bought in 1953 and a Versailles Simca bought in 1955. I could also help out my family. All in all, I was popular.' But the side effects of this popularity were soon felt. In 1962, the socialist government ordered him to close down his studio and to use his skills to serve the State. The then Head of Security, Oumar Boré, made him a promise: 'Seydou, you will be able to work in your studio, but only after the working day'. Nevertheless, in 1963 Keïta was forced to close his studio for good. According to him, the only reason that the state was so intent on his becoming a civil servant was because of a plot hatched against him by people who were jealous of his success and by a few photographers whom he overshadowed. Keïta was to be the Malian Security Services' photographer until 1977, when he retired. In 1994, the first African Photography Summit was organized in Bamako. It was then that Seydou Keïta and his work brought Mali to international attention on the photographic, artistic and creative scenes. Since then, Keïta's photos have been exhibited round the world and 'the elder' has sold his prints to prestigious private collections and to many museums. Looking as fresh today as when they were first printed, his photographs have a seemingly endless capacity to draw the viewer into their elegantly staged and exquisitely costumed world. (from eyestorm)

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