Malick Sidibé (1935–2016) - Vintage unique "Les danseurs" - 1965

An exceptional museum piece (similar 'vintages' are part of the collections of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and MoMA in New York has just acquired one this year.) It was the reference system used by Malick Sidibé for ordering prints. Most photos in his folders exist in no other form, the prints having not been ordered and the negatives often not surviving. These photographs provide a unique glimpse into social life in Bamako, Mali, in the 1960s and 1970s. About Malick Sidibé's vintage prints (excerpt from the exhibition "Mali Twist" at the Fondation Cartier): "I displayed [these prints] in front of the studio where the youths gathered. It was like cinema. Some ordered prints without buying them; the most important thing was that the photos be seen." Ordered by young Bamako residents dressed to the nines, these prints are the memory of moments of joy and pleasure when these young people discovered their image magnified by their "friend" Malick Sidibé. Work exhibited as part of the Rencontres de la photographie in Arles in 2026

Estimate:£423.61

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