Malick Sidibé Was an Architect of Utopia and Purveyor of Nostalgia
Emmanuel Iduma | Art in America | 6th November 2025
Sidibé was in the right place at the right time, opening a photographic studio in Bamako just as Mali became independent. His images brim with the exuberance and pride of new nationhood, not anticipating the nation’s turbulent post-colonial politics. “There is no future to be glimpsed … but there is at least a hint of the uncomplicated past”. Sidibé’s vivid backdrops and sanguine subjects helped establish the visual vocabulary of African portrait photography.