Label TextTaken at night, Malick Sidibé’s photograph captures a couple wearing fashionable
1960s clothing in the camera’s flash. The artist made his name as a street
photographer, recording the people of the city of Bamako as Mali transformed from a
French colony to an independent nation. A fixture of the city’s nightlife, Sidibé
roamed the streets, documenting dancing and celebration within the quickly
modernizing city. This photograph was taken during such an excursion. The frame is a
later addition, created through a reverse-glass painting technique known as souwere.
Such frames signaled the photograph’s role as a keepsake, intended for display in the
home or exchange with friends. This small-scale print may have been posted on the
window of the artist’s studio as an advertisement to those who would stop by to see
images from social events and perhaps purchase reproductions. It might also have been
produced as one of a series of such prints made for purchase.
DimensionsFrame: 10 1/2 x 8 in. (26.7 x 20.3 cm)
Image: 4 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. (11.4 x 8.3 cm)
Image: 4 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. (11.4 x 8.3 cm)
Accession Number 2025.41
Classificationsphotograph
