When the self-taught photographer Seydou Keïta opened a portrait
studio in his hometown of Bamako in 1948, there were only four other photography
studios in Mali. Photography was increasingly popular in West Africa during the
transition from colonial to independent governance beginning in the 1950s, and
the rising middle class flocked to portrait studios to present themselves in
fashions from around the world. Working with a large-format camera, Keïta made
intimate portraits, precisely framed against the brilliant patterns of his
backdrops, that eloquently portray the fashionable vivacity of Malian society
in a time of great change.