
Images like these don’t tell the entire story. Mr Keita’s work remained hidden, locked away- buried in his back yard actually, since he was suppressed from doing what he loved after Mali’s independence.
First colonialization, then his own government. The Keita studio recycled props and used breathtakingly what was at hand. His subjects portrayed personal choice for their sittings, and “defined themselves at the uneven edge of modernity”. Keita’s photography shows a natural vibrancy and resiliency that transcended continents and ironically sustains the saying: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
“Many people call themselves photographers nowadays, but they don’t know anything.”
-Seydou Keita
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~ by shantam on October 31, 2007.
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