Adama Kouyaté (Malian, 1928-2020) Untitled, Circa 1970S
Provenance : [Propriété non datée]
- Kouyaté has not yet received the same level of international critical attention as his contemporaries Malick Sidibé (1936-2016) and Seydou Keïta (1921-2001)
- He was, however, undoubtedly a key participant in the network of West African photographers who, together, crafted a visual record of urban Malian society as it emerged from colonial rule in the 1960s
- Kouyaté moved to Bamako, the capital of what was then French Sudan, at the age of 17 in search of work
- He undertook employment as an apprentice shoemaker and driver until a chance encounter with the established photographer Bakary Doumbia changed his path
- On Christmas Eve 1946, Kouyaté invited Doumbia to his girlfriend's house to take a portrait of the couple
- He recalls, '[t]he photo was so beautiful that I wanted to be a photographer myself
- And I never let go of Bakary Doumbia again' (quoted in Touré, 2013)
- Kouyaté soon became the older photographer's apprentice before commencing work as a photo-enlarging assistant for the esteemed photographer Pierre Garnier (1847-1937)
- Quickly mastering the medium, Kouyaté opened his own studio in Kati (a town close to Bamako) less than three years after his initial encounter with Doumbia
- In the 1960s, he opened two additional studios in West Africa: one in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire in 1968, and the other in Bamako in 1969
- The studio in Bamako allowed Kouyaté to move back to the Malian capital where he reasserted himself alongside Sidibé and Keïta as one of the most desirable photographers working in the city
- Using the same Rolleiflex camera and studio lights, Kouyaté maintained his practice until his death in 2020
- Kouyaté's work has garnered international attention since the 1990s
- His photographs have been presented in numerous exhibitions in France, Belgium, and the United States
- In 2010, a selection of his photographs were published in the French catalogue Studios d'Afrique: Adama Kouyaté (2010), demonstrating the international reach of the Malian artist's work
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Condition_report : Neutral toned print on semi-glossed double weight paper with margins. Lower right corners are creased, not affecting the image. Upper right edge of print has a dent, and upper right corner has a handling crease. Some foxing on the upper right margin.
