The Brooklyn Rail

As memories of childhood in my native country slip away, I long to remember what it looked and felt like. When I flip through my family albums I always wish more had been documented. Walking through Malick Sidibé’s Regardez-moi [Look at Me] I began to think of photographs as monuments of memory. Taken in the years after Mali gained independence from French colonial rule, 1963–2008, this archive chronicles an open moment in Malian history where the people of Mali had the opportunity to define their national identity. Sidibé’s work, in addition to preserving this historical moment, shifts the wider African visual culture. It is offered as a celebration of the Malian nation and their people. Sidibé immortalized subjects in his studio, in nightclubs, and on the street, and with them their pride, dignity, and joy.

In Regardez-moi we get a close look at Sidibé’s photography and his social practice of documenting newly liberated people. His work constantly reflects the soul of Bamako, the capital of Mali, through its residents. Sidibé’s studio was a place where people could be seen as any version of themselves. They came dressed their best or with their most prized possessions, ready to be photographed. Whether in front of a plain white background or a striped backdrop, his subjects demand the viewer’s attention. From the direct gazes to the striking patterns on their clothes, they want to be visible. These images act as a validation of importance and status of personhood and identity.

Many of the photographs are presented in colorful painted frames. The frames are embellished using a popular West African reverse-glass painting technique named souwere, where artists paint on the underside of the glass and turn it around to reveal the final image. With vivid colors and leafy vines, they charmingly spotlight the already eye-catching photographs. The incorporation of these frames reiterates a sentiment of national pride, while also increasing the visibility of the subjects. An untitled photograph (ca. 1970) illustrates this well. Here we have a photo of a recently married couple in a frame proudly displaying the Malian Flag and its colors throughout, adorned with flowers, a fish, a butterfly, and a bird. This puts both the country and the couple on display.

With their frayed edges, a few untitled photographs feel delicately encased in their frames. The women in two untitled works from 1975 and 1984—one standing and one sitting—are both comfortably posed, asserting their presence. Another untitled (and undated) photograph portrays a woman with her two young children, clothed in uniquely ornamented fabrics, each complimenting the other. The woman smiles slightly with a serene look on her face, while one child stands by her side looking directly into the camera, and the other on her lap, looking away. Sidibé’s process looks to be filled with care. His subjects tend to look at ease, pointing to a sense of trust between the photographer and the people he photographed. Sidibé worked not only to portray the people of his country but to crystallize a burgeoning nation, one no longer occupied by a foreign power, and with the new freedom to construct itself.

Outside his studio, Sidibé ventured to dance halls, weddings, the Niger River, sometimes traveling to three or four locations in a day, taking hundreds of photos. Sidibé had the keen ability to take both candid and staged photographs. This varied approach allowed him to create a continuously complex portrait of Bamako, highlighting the ways people in the community engaged with one another. Sidibé carefully captured tender moments between people in Mali, from the pair dancing in Untitled (1967–2004), to the embracing couple on the river bank in Un petit bain de soleil à la plage (1975–2008), to the bride and groom driving up to a city hall for their wedding in Arrivée de la voiture des mariés devant la mairie 15 Octobre 1970 (1970–2008). This active chronicling of people experiencing joy and love challenged dominant narratives relating to Africa, past and present. At the center of it all, Malick Sidibé and his subjects reclaimed their history and in doing so, took charge of their present, a present that prioritized a sense of togetherness and communal pride.