By Sébastien JédorPosted on 03-12-2019Modified on 03-12-2019 at 00:28

Contemporary or documentary art, all styles are represented at the Rencontres de Bamako, the biggest event dedicated to photography in Africa. All styles, including family photos. Three families exhibit personal clichés in the courtyard of their home, as at Moussa Barry Fall.

From our special envoy in Bamako,

In the district of Medina Coura, street 1 door 396, the courtyard of the concession has become a place of exhibition. The children do their homework, women wash clothes, turkeys chuckle and the head of the family, Moussa Barry Fall, customs broker, proudly describes the souvenir photos kept in fragile glass cases.

" It's a picture of my father," he says, showing a slightly yellowed photo ID. There are also studio photos. The family was very fond of visiting Seydou Keita or Malick Sidibé , the big names in Malian photography. " There, it is my aunt who smiles, continues the head of family by designating the photo of an elegant in boubou. When I see these pictures, I see the beauty. "

Historical testimony

For the thirty or so inhabitants of the concession, for the children as well as for the tenants, but also for the neighbors, this exhibition is a historical testimony of the small and great events of the life, through the generations. " It's very moving," says Moussa Barry Fall, who usually keeps his shots in a big trunk. I like these pictures, the family also likes to watch them and the whole neighborhood too ".

This exhibition organized "at home" shows few recent photos. As if digital cameras, mobile phones, Instagram and Snapchat, with their pictures quickly taken and quickly forgotten, had killed the memory. " The quality of today's photos is not good: the paper is not good, the way to take the photos, I do not really like it, " says Moussa Barry Fall, nostalgic. " In the old photos, there was a sincerity. The art was there, "he concludes.

Moussa Barry Fall takes us back to the front steps of the concession. The children will start doing their homework on the chalkboard he has installed in the yard. When asked, before we separate, if he receives financial assistance from the Bamako Encounters for the organization of this touching exhibition, he replies: " I'm doing this for the sake of art ".

The Rencontres de Bamako website. From November 30 to January 31, 2020

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