Seydou Keïta (photographer)

Seydou Keïta (1921 in Bamako, Mali — November 21, 2001 in Paris) was a self-taught portrait photographer from Bamako. He is mostly known for his portraits of people and families he took between 1940 and the early sixties and that are widely acknowledged not only as a record of Malian society, but also as pieces of art.

Biography

Seydou Keïta was born in 1921 in Bamako, although the exact date is unknown. He was the oldest in a family of five children. His father Bâ Tièkòró and his uncle Tièmòkò were furniture makers. Keïta developed an interest in photography when his uncle gave him a Kodak Brownie with a film with eight shots in 1935, after returning from a trip to Senegal. In the beginning Keïta worked as both a carpenter and photographer, taking first portraits of his family and friends, later of people in the neighborhood. He learned photography and how to develop from Pierre Garnier, a French photographic supply store owner, and from Mountaga Traoré, his mentor. In 1948 he set up his first studio in the family house in Bamako-Koura behind the main prison.

Further reading

• Bell, Clare. In/sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, May 24-September 29, 1996. New York, N.Y: Guggenheim Museum, 1996. ISBN 0810968959
• Enwezor, Okwui, and Gabriele Conrath-Scholl. Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection: Events of the Self : Portraiture and Social Identity. Burlafingen: The Walther Collection, 2010 ISBN 9783869301570
• Keïta, Seydou. Photographs, Bamako, Mali, 1948-1963. Steidl / Edition7L, 2011. ISBN 9783869303017
• Keïta, Seydou, André Magnin, and Youssouf Cissé. Seydou Keïta. Zurich: Scalo, 1997. ISBN 3931141462
• Lamunière, Michelle, Seydou Keita, and Malick Sidibé. You Look Beautiful Like That: The Portrait Photographs of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé. Cambridge: Harvard University Art Museums, 2001. ISBN 1891771205

External links

• Seydou Keïta’s Official Website.
• The photographs of Seydou Keita.
• Seydou Keita: Contemporary African Art Collection.
• The Walther Collection
• Sedyou Keita at Gallery51.
• The Ghosts of Seydou Keita: Audio Slideshow from the New York Times.