# Malian studio portraiture

> Portraits made to order for Bamako's clients: people in their best clothes, alone, in couples or in groups, seen whole or at three-quarter length, frontal and at eye level, posed with care in front of a hung patterned cloth whose print meets or clashes with their own. Props such as a radio, a handbag, a watch or a bicycle show what the sitter wanted to be seen with. Keïta worked by daylight on large negatives; Sidibé added tungsten-lit studio portraits and flash pictures of the city's parties. Black and white, small prints for the family.

- Period: 1948–1985
- Where it began: Bamako, French Sudan and, from 1960, Mali
- Kind: Vernacular & studio
- Also called: Bamako studio portraiture, Bamako studio photography
- Page: https://lumogeny.com/styles/malian-studio-portraiture/

## How the look is made

- Let the sitters choose their clothes, props and pose, then refine the pose with them.
- Show the whole figure or most of it, frontal and at eye level, in even light from the front.
- Hang a patterned cloth behind the sitters and let its pattern meet the patterns they wear.
- Keep the backdrop sharp and visible to its edges; nothing falls into darkness.
- Print small, in black and white, for the client to keep, frame and give.

## How it is lit

- Open daylight in a courtyard, falling evenly from the front and above onto the sitters and the hung cloth.
- Tungsten lamps in a small studio, spread evenly across the figure, the backdrop and the tiled floor.
- On-camera flash at night parties, clubs and weddings.

### A light plan from its choices (schematic)

- Key: the open sky, all around and above, soft.

## Camera settings

35–50 mm · f/5.6–f/16 · 1/50–2 s · ISO 50–400 (on 13x18), inferred. Cameras documented: Keïta's 13 × 18 cm camera with a broken shutter, timed by lifting the lens cap in daylight; Sidibé's Agfa 6 × 6 and Foca Sport 35 mm, flash at parties, tungsten in the studio. Lenses, stops, times and film speeds are inferred.

## Directing people

Let sitters choose the pose, then refine it: seated upright or standing full length, shoulders square to the camera, eyes to the lens, face composed; one hand resting on or holding a prop (a radio, a bag, flowers) or on the hip; couples and friends stand close, an arm on a shoulder; at parties couples dance together for the flash.

## Styling

Sitters come in their own best: boubous, headwraps and jewellery, or sharp youth fashion with cocked caps, slim trousers and sunglasses; a patterned cloth hung behind, its print set against theirs; a radio, watch, handbag, bicycle or chair as studio props and status objects.

## Before you shoot it

These are portraits of real clients, often named or identifiable people and their families, who commissioned pictures for themselves rather than for galleries; the work and its rights belong to the photographers' estates, and studio photography in Bamako is a living trade (Studio Malick is run by Sidibé's son Karim). Do not generate imitations of these portraits, their backdrops or their sitters, and never present a generated image as a Malian studio photograph. For new work in this spirit, commission a working West African studio and credit it; when showing the historical pictures, credit the photographer and the estate and name the sitters where they are known.

## Photographs

- Seydou Keïta, Untitled (Woman with Radio), c. 1950. Art Institute of Chicago, through prior anonymous gift in honor of Hugh Edwards; through prior gift of Douglas Cole. In copyright. In copyright, linked: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/252910
- Malick Sidibé, Untitled (I Pose with my Cap), c. 1965. Art Institute of Chicago, Photography Associates Fund. © 1965 Malick Sidibé. In copyright, linked: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/213434
- Seydou Keïta, Untitled, 1956/57, printed 1998. Art Institute of Chicago, Photography Associates Fund. In copyright. In copyright, linked: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/252913
- Malick Sidibé, Mariage Daga arrosé par Las Vegas, 1966. Art Institute of Chicago, Photography Associates Fund. © 1966 Malick Sidibé. In copyright, linked: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/213435

## Sources

- Seydou Keïta, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seydou_Ke%C3%AFta (first studio 1948 in the family house in Bamako-Koura; patterned backdrops and props renewed every few years; clients chose and he refined the pose; prints stamped Photo SEYDOU KEÏTA; government photographer from 1962, studio closed 1963)
- Seydou Keïta (photographe), Wikipédia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seydou_Ke%C3%AFta_(photographe) (courtyard studio, daylight only, one exposure per sitting; Fondation Cartier 1994)
- Two Men with Wrist Watches (negative, 1955), Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/687768 (Keïta's 19 × 13 cm film negatives, gift of Susan Mullin Vogel, 2015)
- Malick Sidibé, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malick_Sidib%C3%A9 (studio in Bagadadji from 1962; Agfa 6 × 6 and Foca Sport cameras; flash in the field, tungsten in the studio; parties photographed until 1976; Hasselblad Award 2003, Venice Golden Lion 2007)
- Malick Sidibé biography, MAGNIN-A: https://magnin-a.com/en/artists/73-malick-sidibe/biography (apprenticeship with Gérard Guillat; Studio Malick opened 1958 in Bagadadji; Saturday parties and Sundays on the Niger; reportage stopped 1978)
- Malick Sidibé, Michigan State University African Online Digital Library: https://amp.matrix.msu.edu/biography.php/name=MalickSidib%C3%A9/ (his son Karim has managed the studio since 2009)
- Malick Sidibé, Daga Family Wedding Celebrated by the Las Vegas Club, Art Institute of Chicago: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/213435 (composite sheet; social clubs of 1960s Bamako; studio opened 1962)
- Malick Sidibé, Untitled (I Pose with my Cap), Art Institute of Chicago: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/213434 (sitters' wish to be shown in international youth fashion)
- Seydou Keïta, Untitled (Woman with Radio), Art Institute of Chicago: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/252910 (vintage print, c. 1950)
- The great African portraitist, Alexander Stuparich, Caption Magazine (13 January 2022): https://www.captionmagazine.org/en/essays/the-great-african-portraitist (a Kodak Brownie Flash from 1935; in 1948 a used 13 × 18 camera with a broken shutter, misprinted as inches; all his portraits from 1949 to 1962 taken with it, primarily by sunlight, exposed by removing the lens cap for a precise time; one shot per sitting)
- Malick Sidibé, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malick_Sidib%C3%A9 (an Agfa 6 × 6 bellows camera for weddings and formal events, a Foca Sport 24 × 36 for candid work; flash in the field, only tungsten lighting in the studio)
- Two Men with Wrist Watches (negative, 1955), Seydou Keïta, Metropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/687768 (Keïta's film negatives measure 19 × 13 cm)
- Untitled (Woman with Radio), Seydou Keïta, Art Institute of Chicago: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/252910 (gelatin silver print, image 16.7 × 11.5 cm on 18 × 13 cm paper)

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