![\"Seydou](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-artnews-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of The Jean Pigozzi Collection of African Art and Danziger Gallery, New York.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tNow celebrated as the father of African photography, Seydou Ke\u00efta (ca. 1921\u20132001) operated a busy studio in Bamako, Mali (until 1960, French Sudan), between 1948 and 1963, a time of radical transformation\u2014from rural to urban and from colonial to postcolonial\u2014both in that country and across Africa. The thousands of people Ke\u00efta photographed during those years represented a cross-section of Malian society that encompassed, among others, Bamako cultural elites, ordinary citizens, nomads, students, and army officers.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile Ke\u00efta did style his subjects\u2014fanning out a skirt here, adjusting the position of a hand there, and even providing European clothing, watches, motorcycles, cars, and radios as props\u2014he also encouraged their active participation in the process. Much of his studio\u2019s popularity among Bamakois rested in his skill at presenting them, and allowing them to present themselves, as they wished to be seen: elegant, cosmopolitan, and above all, modern.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 1963 Ke\u00efta was forced to close his studio by Mali\u2019s post-independence socialist government and start work as its official photographer. His studio portraits were anonymously exhibited for the first time in the West in 1991 in a group show at New York\u2019s Museum for African Art; a subsequent solo show at the Fondation Cartier in Paris in 1994\u2014of prints made from negatives brought to France from Mali\u2014was a sensation, sparking an explosion of interest in Ke\u00efta\u2019s work as well as in African photography in general. With international fame came more new prints, made both in Ke\u00efta\u2019s lifetime and after his death. Larger in scale and cooler in tone than the original photographs, they are now how most contemporary viewers experience Ke\u00efta\u2019s images.<\/p>\n
\n\tTo Western scholars and curators, Ke\u00efta\u2019s photographs\u2014coinciding with the lead-up to, and early years of, Malian independence\u2014are both captivating portraits of self-defined individuals and an important record of African life at a moment of transition. To Ke\u00efta\u2019s Malian clients, the photos were much more. Pocket-size and made for personal use, they signaled worldly success, commemorated special events and holidays, assisted in matchmaking, and even served as talismans.<\/p>\n
\n\tOn view now at the Brooklyn Museum, the exhibition \u201cSeydou Ke\u00efta: A Tactile Lens\u201d focuses on the latter aspect of Ke\u00efta\u2019s photographs, emphasizing the role of self-fashioning in their creation. Organized by guest curator Catherine E. McKinley with Imani Williford, the museum\u2019s curatorial assistant for photography, fashion, and material culture, it features more than 200 photographs, including negatives and vintage prints, as well as examples of clothing, jewelry, and textiles. With that show on view through March 8, below is a guide to five of Ke\u00efta\u2019s key works.<\/p>\n
\tUntitled, 1956<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of The Jean Pigozzi Collection of African Art and Danziger Gallery, New York.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tKe\u00efta was born at some point between 1921 and 1923 in Bamako, at the time the capital of French Sudan and later of Mali, which gained independence in 1960. He was given his first camera at age 14 by an uncle; in his late twenties, while working as a carpenter, he apprenticed himself to Mountaga Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 (1919\u20132004), the first Black photographer to have a successful photo studio in Bamako. In 1948 Ke\u00efta opened his own atelier in front of the compound that served as home to him and his large extended family. He would often use up unfinished rolls of film on pictures of himself\u2014like the gentle self-portrait above\u2014and of his wives, children, and relatives.<\/p>\n
\tUntitled, 1949\u201351<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Copyright \u00a9 SKPEAC\/Seydou Ke\u00efta. Courtesy of The Jean Pigozzi African Art Collection and Danziger Gallery, New York.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile the identity of most of his subjects is unknown, this sitter was a close friend of Ke\u00efta\u2019s and, with him, part of a group of well-dressed men known as \u201cThe Gentlemen.\u201d Dandling one of his children on his lap, he wears a West African man\u2019s costume consisting of drawstring pants, shirt, and boubou, a style of robe, often lavishly embroidered, that is still ubiquitous in the region. While European clothes and fabrics were prized by wealthy Malians before World War II, during the independence era the boubou became a symbol of quiet resistance to French colonialism. The backdrop, however, is a French damask coverlet from Ke\u00efta\u2019s own bedroom.<\/p>\n
\tUntitled, 1954<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Copyright \u00a9 SKPEAC\/Seydou Ke\u00efta. Courtesy of The Jean Pigozzi African Art Collection and Danziger Gallery, New York.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tAmong the props Ke\u00efta made available to his clients was his beloved Peugeot 203 motorcar\u2014one of only two in Bamako, the other belonging to the colonial governor, Edmond Louveau. Reflected in the automobile\u2019s right front bumper is Ke\u00efta himself, standing behind his camera and tripod. Like midcentury photographer Lee Friedlander, who often incorporated his own shadow or reflection into his pictures of American life, Ke\u00efta here positions himself as part of the social environment he was documenting.<\/p>\n
\tUntitled, 1953\u201357<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Copyright \u00a9 SKPEAC\/Seydou Ke\u00efta. Courtesy of The Jean Pigozzi African Art Collection and Danziger Gallery, New York.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tOne of Ke\u00efta\u2019s most iconic photos, this portrait\u2014in which its dignified subject nearly disappears into a flurry of competing patterns\u2014is a study in opposing cultural markers. While the checked blanket on which she reclines is African, the wildly patterned fabric behind her is likely European. And, though her flowered women\u2019s boubou and strings of carnelian beads are traditional, her watch is new and her head covering is a scarf tied low at one side \u00e0 la de Gaulle, a fashion trend of the day.<\/p>\n
\tUntitled, late 1940s to mid-1970s<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy of the Seydou Ke\u00efta Family.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\tIn this photograph, possibly taken after Ke\u00efta closed his studio, a young woman boldly sports an Afro, towering platform shoes, and a watch with a wide band and extra-large face. By the 1960s, a new generation of Malians, critical of their elders\u2019 infatuation with imported goods, were coming of age. Ironically, though, they in turn would become entranced by African-American and British music, dances, and clothing during the 1960s and 1970s. This was in direct opposition to the emphasis on traditional values by Mali\u2019s post-independence socialist government and, after 1968, its military regime. Their youthful rebelliousness would later be memorialized by, among others, Ke\u00efta\u2019s mentee, photographer Malick Sidib\u00e9 (1935\u20132016).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now celebrated as the father of African photography, Seydou Ke\u00efta (ca. 1921\u20132001) operated a busy studio in Bamako,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[51498,51499,51500,146,85,46,51501,51502],"class_list":["post-72350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-african-independence","tag-african-photography","tag-decolonization","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-malik-sidibu00e9","tag-seydou-keu00efta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}