Belle de jour

Beneath a tall pale headwrap, its folds rolled with care, a young woman meets the camera with disarming calm. A sleeveless openwork knit top, a fine chain with a small pendant, a discreet earring: Belle de jour, taken in 1975 at the Volta Photo studio in Bobo-Dioulasso, distils the elegance Sanlé Sory offered his sitters. Against the dark backdrop, the never-cropped 6×6 square of the Rolleiflex gives the face the presence of sculpture.

This Printer's Proof accompanies the numbered limited edition print of the work: a digigraphie on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315 g paper, delivered in a museum frame with museum glass. Few archives in African photography compare with Sanlé Sory's, held at MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the V&A and LACMA. This black and white print can be seen in Generation Volta at Sakana Gallery, Donostia, until 1 October 2026.

Print details

• Edition : Printer's Proof
• Image : 44 × 44 cm
• Paper : 50 × 65 cm
• Technique : Digigraphie print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315 g paper
• Framing : Museum framing, museum glass

The sculptural elegance of this 1975 portrait helps explain why Sanlé Sory's work is now held by MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the V&A and LACMA. Long confined to family albums, West African studio photography has thus entered the history of photography through the front door of the museum: in 2018 the Art Institute of Chicago gave Sory his first solo exhibition in an American museum. This Printer's Proof keeps the intimate trace of that image.

All works by Sanlé Sory · Exhibition catalogue (PDF)