Untitled c. 1970

These small gelatin silver prints by Malick Sidibé capture everyday life and youth culture in Bamako, Mali. I’m thinking about Sidibe taking the photographs and mounting them. Look how he groups his images together, almost like a contact sheet. It's like a visual diary, mapping memories and moments. I can imagine him arranging these images, thinking about rhythm, and how the individual images talk to each other. The composition has an improvised feel, yet the arrangement is very deliberate. What story is being told? The images themselves seem to be about the joy of community and the everyday, friends having fun and dancing. There’s also an eye to fashion, with a focus on style and dress. What do these photographs tell us about the artist? What can we imagine about his practice, and what can we discern about his personality?