Malick Sidibé was born in Mali in 1936, in a village about 300 kilometres from Bamako. In the capital city he studies figure drawing and jewel design, resulting one of the best students in his course. After the degree, he was asked to decorate the shop of the famous photographer Gérard Guillat-Guignard, also known as Gégé la pellicule. It is 1955 and Malick gets really fund of photography. He sticks with Gégé as a trainée and in 1962 opens his own atelier, Studio Malick, in the working-class district ok Bamako called Bagdadji.
If the other big name of African photography – Seydou Keita – is famous for the portraits taken in his studio, Malick tells us about the nights in Bamako: Mali is independent since two years and the capital wants to celebrate with happiness and dancing.
Malick goes to the parties where all the young people are dressed up in the occidental way and dance at the sound of a record player: his images show us joyful youth full of lust for life.
In the middle of the 70s he decides to stop taking pictures downtown or along the river, and turns back to the work in his studio, leaving us as a result an exhaustive and fundamental memory of his Country and of his age.
During the first edition of the Rencontres de la Photographie de Bamako in 1994 (the most important photography event in Africa) his talent is discovered by authors and reviewers and for Malick it’s the beginning of a second youth, this time in Europe and in the Usa and it’s always a great success.
Today Sidibé is considered the most important African photographer. In 2007 the Biennale of Venice blessed him with the Golden Lion for the career, award particularly important, because it was the first time that the price was assigned to a photographer. Anyway, the list of his awards is long: the Hasselblad Award in 2003, the ICP Award in 2008, the Photo PhotoEspaña Baume & Mercier, in 2010 the World Press Photo in the section Arts and Entertainment.
The artist nowadays lives and works in Bamako.

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