"Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens opens with unmistakable force. The Brooklyn Museum draws visitors into the charged atmosphere of mid-century Bamako, where political transformation and personal aspiration met in the intimate space of a studio. More than 280 works build a world of surfaces and sensations, from elaborately patterned cloth to gleaming accessories and the quiet poise of sitters who understood the camera as a tool of self-realisation."
"Keïta's portraits were made during a period when Mali was moving towards independence and urban life was in rapid evolution. Bamako had become a place where young people experimented with modernity through clothing, gesture and ornament. Keïta captured this with a sensitivity that feels both formal and deeply collaborative. Guests arrived at his courtyard studio ready to craft their own image. He responded with an eye trained not just on composition but on the textures that defined a life."
More than 280 portraits foreground surfaces and sensations—elaborately patterned cloth, gleaming accessories, and poised sitters who used the camera to shape self-image. Keïta worked from a courtyard studio where guests collaborated to craft their own portraits, emphasizing texture and composition as identity markers. The portraits were made as Mali moved toward independence and as Bamako's urban youth experimented with modernity through clothing, gesture, and ornament. Keïta's practice parallels James Barnor's Ever Young studio in Accra, with both documenting communities asserting new cultural agency. Curator Catherine E McKinley highlights Keïta's ability to render tactility and sensory immediacy.
Read at Aesthetica Magazine
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