L'aRTe * aFRiCAINE::...

"Painting is just another way of keeping a Diary"

----Pablo Picasso

Photography is another way.

This is Seydou Keïta's Diary...

(Source of Photographs: CAACART)

Photographer: Seydou Keïta (1921 in Bamako, Mali - November 21, 2001 in Paris)

Significance: Seydou Keita was a self-taught portrait photographer born in Bamako, Mali in 1921. 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. 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. (Source)

He was most definitely a gem of Africa. Let us honour his memory by appreciating his artwork.