You Look Beautiful Like That: The Portrait Photographs of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé

by Michelle Lamunière, Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé

Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, two important and widely known commercial photographers from Mali, took mesmerizing photographs of members of their communities during the decades before and after the country's independence from France in 1960. This book presents a range of these portraits, as well as excerpts of recent interviews with the artists and an essay placing the photographers within the context of the history of portrait photography in West Africa since its beginnings in the 1840s. In contrast to the early photographs of Africans produced by Western colonial powers, Keïta and Sidibé's photographs represent the work of Africans controlling the camera to create images of African subjects for an African audience. Keïta combined formulas of Western portrait photography with local aesthetics to create images that reflect both his clients' social identity and status within the community and an enthusiastic embrace of modernity. Later, as portrait conventions and societal roles became more flexible, Sidibé's subjects took a more active part in constructing the images of themselves that they wanted to convey. Africans have valued photography for its unique ability to capture a person's likeness, which, says Sidibé, was regarded as more eternal than the subjects themselves. This book is a striking collection of such likenesses.

Genres: Photography, Africa

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book that satisfies with a thoughtful essay, winsome interviews, and phenomenal reproductions of the portrait work by both photographers, Keita and Sidibe.

Keita is the older of the two, and it's interesting to see how the formal aesthetics of traditional African style influences his portraits. Sidibe responds more vigorously to the independence from colonial rule and the freedom introduced by Afro-Cuban music.

This is an awesome book. I borrowed it via ILL, but I'm going to get a copy for myself (and recommend that my library add it to its collection). Beautiful cover, easy to hold, and perfect for study.

[Bobby Tula · Rating 5 out of 5]

And this is where I learned about the size of a swath of cloth signified regal status, regency. The early photographs of West Africa featured show the foundation on which Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé formed the visions of backdrops, use of props, vehicles, etcetera in their respective works.

This was the first of my first Malick Sidibé text/photographs collection section in my library.

"You Look Beautiful Like That" took my artistic impressions onto a new turn in my path as a photographer.

[Ellison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Begins with information about why folks ant to pose for photographs and mentions props. Then interviews of the two photographers who created the works. the second half is their images. Insightful.