Seydou Keïta (photographer)

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Seydou Keïta (1921 in Bamako, Mali - November 21, 2001 in Paris) was a self-taught portrait photographer from Bamako. He is mostly known for his portraits of people and families he took between 1940 and the early sixties and that are widely acknowledged not only as a record of Malian society, but also as pieces of art.

[edit] Biography

Seydou Keïta was born in 1921 in Bamako on an unknown day and in an unknown month. He was the eldest in a family of five children. His father Bâ Tièkòró and his uncle Tièmòkò were furniture makers. Keïta developed an interest in photography when his uncle gave him a Kodak Brownie with a film with eight shots in 1935, after returning from a trip to Senegal. In the beginning Keïta worked as both a carpenter and photographer, taking first portraits of his family and friends, later of people in the neighborhood. He learned photography and how to develop from Pierre Garnier, a French photographic supply store owner, and from Mountaga Traoré, his mentor. In 1948 he set up his first studio in the family house in Bamako-Koura behind the main prison.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The photographs of Seydou Keita.
• Seydou Keita: Contemporary African Art Collection.
• Sedyou Keita at Gallery51.
• The Ghosts of Seydou Keita: Audio Slideshow from the New York Times.