Malick Sidibé Photographed a changing Malian Culture

I feel the work of Malian photographer Malick Sidibé within my heart.  The photos of everyday people and families, as well as youth culture in Mali in the 50s, 60s and 70s, remind me of the photographs my parents took in their young adult years in the 70s and our youth in the 80s.  When looking at his photographs, I always think of family and friends and youth. 

 It’s truly some of the best, most joyous photography you will ever see.  So many great images that it’s so hard to choose a favorite, but if I had to choose, it would be his Nuit de Noel (1963).  Nuit de Noel is youth, culture, music, love and family all in one image.

Nuit de Noel (1963).

Everything about Sidibé’s black and white photography is amazing – the brash swagger of his male subjects; the awesome sartorial choices; the vibrant, defiant, beauty of the female subjects; and the uninhibited sweetness of the couples.

Sidibé found his young subjects at their frequent haunts – concerts, nightclubs, beaches and sporting events, where music played a strong role.  The social and cultural change that was spreading all over the world in the 50s, 60s and 70s had permeated West Africa and Sibidé was there to capture a new freedom in the Malian youth:

"We were entering a new era, and people wanted to dance," Sidibé once said in the Guardian. "Music freed us. Suddenly, young men could get close to young women, hold them in their hands. Before, it was not allowed. And everyone wanted to be photographed dancing up close. They had to see it!"

According to the Jack Shainman gallery, “Sidibé’s work documents a transitional moment as Mali gained its independence and transformed from a French colony steeped in tradition to a more modern independent country looking toward the West.”

While music greatly influenced his work, his photography was a huge influence on Janet Jackson’s 1997 “Got ‘til it’s Gone” video, directed by Mark Romanek.  In the video, Jackson portrays a lounge singer in apartheid South Africa, many of the scenes in the video look like they are pulled straight from a Sibide photography.  The visually stunning video won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form.

Sibidé’s work has also inspired other artists, including Senegalese photographer Omar Victor Diop and Bamakois singer and songwriter Inna Modja.

Sibidé was a transformative, influential contributor to photography, deeply respected and highly honored.  He brought the world’s attention to the richness of a changing African culture, with some traditions still intact. 

 Museums with Sibidé’s work among their permanent collections include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania; The Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC) of Jean Pigozzi, Geneva; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, AL; Studio Museum in Harlem (New York); High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; International Center of Photography, New York; and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, to name a few.

Malick Sidibé

Sibedé was represented by the Jack Shainman Gallery from 2008 until his death in 2016 around the age of 80.