Photography Malian Style

Mali has a long history of photography. The pinhole camera is an important part of that history. Lani and I found a man on the street in Mopti that had one. The best we could tell he mostly did passport photos for Malians. He displayed one photo of other tourist posted on his camera.

We sat on the bench poised waiting fascinated by every move he made. First he mixed the developing chemicals in little plastic bottle bottoms and placed them in the camera. The whole process would be done in the camera by feel. The camera took pictures and became a dark room for developing the photos.

He set the lens on the focusing mode looked through the black fabric at the back turning the lens just right. He put the lens cap back on turned the lens setting to the right exposure took the lens cap for just the right amount of time. He got busy with both hands in the camera through the black fabric so we could only conclude that he was developing. What he came out with was a negative print of us. He placed the negative on a holder set the lens to the focus mode followed by setting the lens with an exposure mode and again developed some photos. This time the photo came out a positive.

The pictures here are copies this one of the negative and the other a copy of the copy of the negative. We paid our 1,000 Cfa (about two dollars) for each print. We got two prints one for each one of us and he through in the negative for free. As a photographer that was the real treat.

Another photo phenomena is the photo studio, the portraits at weddings, holidays, and baptisms. Koro took me to met Photo John during our meet the artisans of Koutiala marathon. Photo John has a big studio at a major intersection in town. He has an automated printing machine, a computer that he showed me some incredible touching up jobs on old photos. Photo John invited me and Koro next to his portrait studio. He tried several back drops before settling on the one he thought would be the best. Several days later Koro showed up with some prints for both of us. Months later as we waited for the bus to Ghana a man started talking to us he spoke somewhat good english and said he was from Ghana and going to Ghana. He recognized us from our photos on the wall at Photo Johns where he worked. Again this is a copy of a print didn't turn out too well did it.

As a photographer I did not give the art of photography here in Mali the scholarly attention it deserved. In neither an art history context nor as an anthropology cultural phenomenon. Photography here in Mali has been shaped and reshaped in order to fit into the local fabric of imaging and imagining. People are at the center of Malian life so it makes sense that the art of photography centers around people and major events in their lives. I caught myself between the art form, the technology and the culture. We have a saying in Peace Corp "Cross Cultural." Cross cultural studies is a major part of our training. How to apply that in everything we come across depends on our outlook and understanding. And as my outlook and understanding expands so does my ideas of things I run across in my everyday life here in Mali.