Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens

Seydou Keïta's photographs capture Malian culture during an era of radical transformation. As a commercial portrait photographer, Keïta had a remarkable ability to draw out tactile details and emotions from his subjects, creating strikingly intimate portraits that have resonated with audiences across geographic and cultural borders. In 1948, Keïta opened one of the city's first photography studios. Located in Bamako-Coura, the city's colonial center, the studio attracted clientele from across the country and West Africa. Keïta offered bold, patterned backdrops and props—including cars, Vespas and European clothing and accessories—that allowed sitters to explore new ways of fashioning the self before the camera's lens.

This groundbreaking publication, which accompanies an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, draws from across Keïta's rich oeuvre—spanning iconic portraits and rarely seen vintage prints to never-before-shown negatives—to explore the social and political realities of the period. The catalog was informed and enriched by contributions from the Keïta family, including their generous loan of negatives from the family archive and oral histories. Richly illustrated and supported with texts from leading scholars and writers, this book is the essential volume on Seydou Keïta.

Editor:Catherine E. McKinley.
Author(s):J. Luca Ackerman, Jennifer Bajorek, Duncan Clarke, Thomas Dyja, Howard W. French, Patricia Gérimont, Sana Ginwalla, Awa Konaté, Drew Sawyer.

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Hardcover, DelMonico Books, 2025
256 p, 9.5 × 11.25 in.