‘The father of African photography’: Acclaimed Malian Malick Sidibe mourned after passing away aged 80
Sidibe was the first African and the first photographer to be awarded the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice film festival.
Pioneering Malian photographer Malick Sidibe, whose powerful black and white images of local life won him international acclaim and top awards, has died aged 80, his family said on Friday.
Sidibe’s vibrant images of life in the Malian capital Bamako in the 1960s, when the country gained independence from France, were a social commentary chronicling both pop culture and traditional society.
In 2007, he was the first African and the first photographer to be awarded the Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice film festival.
It’s a great loss for Mali. He was part of our cultural heritage
His nephew Oumar Sidibe said the photographer had been ill for some time and died on Thursday, paying tribute to a man who remained “a model” for others.
“He was a pious man, who remained so modest despite his success,” Sidibe said.
“It’s a great loss for Mali. He was part of our cultural heritage,” said Mali’s Culture Minister N’Diaye Ramatoulaye Diallo. “The whole of Mali is in mourning.”
Sidibe was the first African to have a solo exhibition in Paris’s prestigious Grand Palais museum, and his works adorn the walls of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Getty Museum and several more across the world.
He captured candid images in his studio as well as on the streets of Bamako, including at nightclubs, beaches and sporting events.