Malick Sidibé: Look At Me

Representing the full range of Sidibé’s artistic practise, this exhibition includes studio portraiture, nightlife photography, and representations of daily life in post-independence Bamako, Mali. In A Ye-ye posing, 1963 Sidibé captures a young man posing with sunglasses and bell-bottom trousers, showing his engagement with ye-ye pop music that was taking off in Europe at the time. As a whole, these photographs present 1960s and 1970s Bamako as a lively, cosmopolitan centre where youth asserted their presence as active participants in a globalised world.

In 2003 Sidibé was awarded the prestigious Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. He was the first photographer to be awarded the Lion d’Or for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2007. Sidibé was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Center for Photography, New York in 2009. A major retrospective of his work took place at the Fondation Cartier in 2017.

Sidibé is regarded as one of the most influential West African photographers of his time. All works in this exhibition were printed from the original negative in Malick Sidibé’s lifetime and are signed by the artist.