| Intro | Malian photographer |
| A.K.A. | Seydou Keita |
| Was | Photographer |
| From | Mali |
| Type | Arts |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 1 January 1921, Bamako, Mali |
| Death |
22 November 2001, Paris, Île-de-France, France (aged 80 years) |
Seydou Keïta (1921 — 21 November 2001) was a Malian photographer. He is mostly known for his portraits of people and families he took between 1940 and the early 1960s and that are widely acknowledged not only as a record of Malian society but also as pieces of art.
Biography
Keïta was born in 1921 in Bamako, Mali, although the exact date is unknown. He was the oldest in a family of five children. His father Bâ Tièkòró and his uncle Tièmòkò were furniture makers. 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. In 1948 he set up his first studio in the family house in Bamako-Koura behind the main prison.
Keïta died in 2001 in Paris.
Publications by Keïta
- Seydou Keita: Photographs, Bamako, Mali 1948-1963. Göttingen: Steidl, 2011. ISBN 978-3869303017.
Exhibitions
Solo
- 1994 Seydou Keita, Cartier, The Contemporary Art Fondation, Paris, France
- 1994 Seydou Keita, Ginza art’s space, Shiseido, Tokyo, Japan
- 1995 Seydou Keita, Fruit Market Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
- 1995 Self Evident, The Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
- 1996 National Museum for African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
- 1996 Seydou Keita, Minneapolis Institut of Art Minneapolis, USA
- 1997 Seydou Keita, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
- 1997 Seydou Keita, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
- 1998-99 Seydou Keita, Saint Louis Museum of Art, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
- 1999 PhotoEspana 99, Madrid, Spain
- 2001 Flash Afrique, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria & Düsseldorf Cultural Forum, Germany
- 2001 You Look Beautiful Like That, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, USA
- 2001 Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
- 2011 Seydou Keïta, Gallery Fifty One, Antwerp, Belgium
Group
- 1996 African Photographers, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
- 1998 São Paulo Biennal, São Paulo, Brazil
- 2000 The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
- 2003 Les ateliers des désirs, Centre Culturel Français Freiburg, Germany
- 2005 African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection, Museum of Fine Art Houston, USA
- 2005 Arts of Africa, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco, France
- 2006 About Africa, part one, Gallery Fifty One, Antwerp, Belgium
- 2006 Vive l’Afrique, Galérie du Jour – Agnès b., Tokyo, Japan
- 2006 100% Africa, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
- 2007 Why Africa?, Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Turin, Italy
- 2008 Accrochage, Gallery Fifty One, Antwerp, Belgium
- 2009 Masters of Photography, Gallery Fifty One, Antwerp, Belgium
- 2010 African Stories, Marrakech Art Fair, Marrakech
- 2010 Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection, Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity, Neu-Ulm, Germany
- 2011 Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Artur Walther Collection
- 2015 The Pistil’s Waltz, Gallery Fifty One, Antwerp, Belgium