Artist Quote: "It’s easy to take a photo, but what really made a difference was that I always knew how to find the right position, and I never was wrong. Their head slightly turned, a serious face, the position of the hands... I was capable of making someone look really good. The photos were always very good. That’s why I always say that it’s a real art." Achievements: Keïta was discovered in the West in the 1990s. Seven of his images were a part of the exhibition “Africa Explores: Twentieth Century African Arts” at the Center for African Arts in New York but did not credit his name. His first solo exhibition took place in 1994 in Paris at the Fondation Cartier. This was followed by many others in various museums, galleries and foundations worldwide. He is now universally recognized as the father of African photography and considered one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. | About the Artist: A self-taught photographer, he opened a studio in 1948 and specialized in portraiture. His portraits gained a reputation for excellence throughout West Africa. Keïta’s career as a photographer was launched in 1935 by an uncle who gave him his first camera, a Kodak Brownie Flash. Alongside his studio practice, Keïta visited people’s homes to compose portraits and traveled to rural towns to take identification photographs. For nearly 15 years, Keïta ran the most famous photo studio in Bamako, thanks to his talent, his mastery of poses, the quality of his prints and a certain business acumen. He sometimes received more than 40 customers a day. About the Artwork: Keïta’s photographs eloquently portray Bamako society during its era of transition from a cosmopolitan French colony to an independent capital. Like many professional photographers, he furnished his studio with numerous props, from backdrops and costumes. Keïta regularly employed richly patterned backdrops that add movement and visual energy to his images. In many of his photographs, often the ones that are the most popular, the play between the patterns of the dresses and the backgrounds creates very graphic compositions. Seydou Keïta worked primarily with daylight and for economic reasons took only a single shot for each picture. Inventive and highly modern, his emphasis on the essential components of portrait photography—light, subject, framing—firmly establishes Keïta among the twentieth-century masters of Portraiture. |
Sources:
http://www.seydoukeitaphotographer.com/en/#18
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/seydou-keita
https://caacart.com/pigozzi-artist.php?m=47
http://www.seydoukeitaphotographer.com/en/#18
https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/seydou-keita
https://caacart.com/pigozzi-artist.php?m=47