Malick Sidibé


Malick Sidibé was a Malian photographer from a Fulani village in Soloba, who was noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s in Bamako, Mali. Sidibé had a long and fruitful career as a photographer in Bamako, and was a well-known figure in his community. In 1994 he had his first exhibition outside of Mali and received much critical praise for his carefully composed portraits. Sidibé's work has since become well known and renowned on a global scale.
His work was the subject of a number of publications and exhibited throughout Europe and the United States. In 2007, he received a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale, becoming both the first photographer and the first African so recognized. Other awards he has received include a Hasselblad Award for photography in 2003, an International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Lifetime Achievement, and a World Press Photo award.
Sidibé's work is held in the collections of The Contemporary African Art Collection, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Life and work

Sidibé was born in the village of Soloba, 300 km from Bamako, in Mali. His father, Kolo Barry Sidibé, was a Fula stock breeder, farmer, and skilled hunter. Malick's father had wanted him to attend school, but passed before he was able to attend at the age of 16. In 1955 photographer Gérard Guillat came to the school looking for a student to decorate his studio, eventually hiring Sidibé. Guillat was impressed with his work and took him on as an apprentice. Sidibé's first tasks included calibrating equipment, and delivering prints. He soon learned more about photography as he assisted Guillat, and eventually took on his own clients. In 1957 Guillat closed his studio, and Sidibé began taking photographs of Bamako nightlife. He specialized in documentary photography, focusing particularly on the youth culture of the Malian capital. Sidibé took photographs at sport events, the beach, nightclubs, concerts, and even tagged along while the young men seduced girls. He increasingly became noted for his black-and-white studies of popular culture in the 1960s in Bamako. In the 1970s, Sidibé turned towards the making of studio portraits. His background in drawing became useful:
As a rule, when I was working in the studio, I did a lot of the positioning. As I have a background in drawing, I was able to set up certain positions in my portraits. I didn't want my subjects to look like mummies. I would give them positions that brought something alive in them.

In 1962, Sidibé opened his own studio in the Bagadadji neighborhood of Bamako. Sidibé continued to take photos of the surprise parties and club gatherings of the city until 1976. 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. Sidibé continued to shoot black and white studio portraits, ID photos, and fix broken cameras at his Bamako studio. 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. One of the best known of Sidibé's works from that time is Nuit de Noel, Happy Club , depicting a smiling couple – the man in a suit, the woman in a Western party dress and both dancing, presumably, to music. And it was images like these that revealed how Sidibé's photographic style was inextricably linked to music. This connection is something that Sidibé had spoken about during interviews, over the years. It is perhaps no surprise that other Malian artists, such as the musicians Salif Keita and Ali Farka Touré, also came to international attention in the 1990s at almost the same moment as Malian photography was being recognized.

Sidibé used flash when out in the field, but only tungsten lighting in the studio. 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. He was known as a very charming person and would tell his clients jokes to put them at ease while shooting portraits.
The Grammy award-winning video of Janet Jackson's 1997 song "Got 'til It's Gone" is strongly indebted to the photographic style of Sidibé, and the video pays tribute to a particular time that Sidibé's pictures had helped to document. This was the time period just after the French Sudan had gained Independence from France in 1960. This new era has, subsequently, been characterized by various observers as a post-colonial awakening of consciousness. 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. More recently, Sidibé's influence can be seen directly through Inna Modja's 2015 video for her song "Tombouctou", as it was filmed in Sidibé's photography studio.
In 2006, Tigerlily Films made a documentary entitled Dolce Vita Africana about Sidibé, filming him at work in his studio in Bamako, having a reunion with many of his friends from his younger days, and speaking to him about his work.
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:
Sidibé died of complications from diabetes in Bamako. He was survived by 17 children and three wives.

Publications

Publications by Sidibé

  • Malick Sidibé. Zurich; New York: Scalo, 1998.. Edited by André Magnin. With an introduction by Magnin, and essays by Sibidé, Youssouf Doumbia,, Panka Dembelé, and Boubacar "Kar Kar" Traoré. Included a four-song music CD by Kar Kar.
  • Malick Sidibé, Photographe: "vues de dos" photographies. Carnets de la création, Mali. Montreal: Editions de l'oeil, 2001.. With a text by Amadou Chab Touré. 24 pages.
  • Malick Sidibe: Photographs: the Hasselblad Award 2003. Göteborg, Sweden: Hasselblad Center; Göttingen: Steidl, 2003.. With a foreword by Gunilla Knape, an essay by Manthia Diawara, "The 1960s in Bamako: Malick Sidibé and James Brown", and a transcript of an interview with Sidibé by André Magnin. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Malick Sidibé: 2003 Hasselblad Award Winner held at the Hasselblad Center, Göteborg, Sweden, 2003.
  • Malick Sidibé: Chemises. Göttingen: Steidl, 2007.. Catalog of an exhibition presented at Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam and at Musée Nicệphore Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saône.
  • Malick Sidibe. Wilsele, Belgium: Exhibitions International, 2008. By Foundation Zinsou..
  • Bagadadji. Saint-Brieuc, France: GwinZegal, 2008.. With an essay by Florian Ebner, "La scène de Bagadadji". Portraits of the inhabitants of Bagadadji, Bamako, taken between 1964 and 1976.
  • * English-language version.
  • * French-language version.
  • * German-language version.
  • Perception. Saint-Brieuc, France: GwinZegal, 2008.. In French. Studio portraits made in Brittany, France, over the course of three weeks in July 2006.
  • Malick Sidibé: La Vie en Rose. Milan: Silvana, 2010. Edited and with text by Laura Incardona and Laura Serani..
  • Malick Sidibé: The Portrait of Mali . Milan: Skira, 2011. Edited by Laura Incardona, Laura Serani, and Sabrina Zannier.. Text in English, French and Italian.
  • Malick Sidibé: Au village. Montreuil, France: Éditions de L'Œil, 2011.. Text by Brigitte Ollier. Studio portraits taken in Sidibé's native village of Soloba over the course of 50 years. In French.
  • Malick Sidibé. :fr:Photo Poche No. 145. Arles, France: :fr:Actes Sud, 2013.. With an introduction by Laura Serani.

Publications with contributions by Sidibé

Publications about Sidibé

  • Retrats de l'Anima: Fotografia Africana. Barcelona: La Caixa Foundation, 1997.. By Sélim Benattiam, Cristina de Borbón, and Rosa Casamada. In Catalan and English. An exhibition catalogue. With a contribution by Mounira Khemir, "De una Punta a otra de Africa. Impresionas Fotograficas".
  • The 1960s in Bamako: Malick Sidibé and James Brown. Paper Series on the Arts, Culture, and Society, Paper No. 11. By Manthia Diawara. New York: Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 2001.. About Sidibé and James Brown.
  • Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Vol. 4, No. 2/3. New York: New York University, 2002. Included an essay by Manthia Diawara, The 1960s in Bamako: Malick Sidibé and James Brown.
  • Black Cultural Traffic: Crossroads in Global Performance and Popular Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2005. Edited by Harry J. Elam Jr., and Kennell Jackson Jr.. Includes a chapter by Manthia Diawara, "The 1960s in Bamako: Malick Sidibé and James Brown".

Awards

Collections

Sidibé's work is held in the following public collections:

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions and festivals

Film and television appearances

  • Malick Sidibé: portrait of the artist as a portraitist.. Directed by Susan Vogel for the National Museum of Mali / Prince Street Pictures. Produced by Vogel, Samuel Sidbe, and Catherine de Clippel. Interview with Sidibé by Jean-Paul Colleyn. In French with English subtitles.
  • Dolce Vita Africana. 62 mins. Directed by Cosima Spender. Produced by Natasha Dack, Nikki Parrott, and Spender. A documentary about Sidibé, and about Malian history as told through people he photographed. In Bamanankan and French. The film was shown as part of BBC4's Storyville series in March 2008.
  • Malick Sidibé, le Partage. 52 mins. DVD and brochure. Film by Thomas Glaser, text by Gaël Teicher.. The film is in French with French and English subtitles, and the text is in French.