La timidité

Standing on the patterned mat of the studio, legs crossed as if to hold back the pose, a young girl barely smiles beneath her round afro. Dark polo shirt, white shorts, flat sandals: nothing borrowed, no props, just the dark curtain of the Volta Photo studio in Bobo-Dioulasso and the graceful shyness that gives the image its title. Sanlé Sory's delicacy lies entirely here: his Rolleiflex 6×6, never cropped, grants each sitter exactly the portrait they are ready to give.

Generation Volta, at Sakana Gallery in Donostia until 1 October 2026, presents this limited edition print: number 5 of 8, a digigraphie on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315 g paper, image 36 × 36 cm, museum frame and museum glass. A black and white print by a master of african photography, rediscovered in 2011 and held at MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the V&A and LACMA.

Print details

• Edition : 5/8
• Image : 36 × 36 cm
• Paper : 40 × 50 cm
• Technique : Digigraphie print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315 g paper
• Framing : Museum framing, museum glass

A pair of white shorts, crossed legs, a held-back smile: this intimate portrait continues the great tradition of West African studio photography of the independence years. Sanlé Sory belongs to the line of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, yet he worked in Bobo-Dioulasso rather than a capital. That singularity has since carried his work into MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago, which devoted a solo exhibition to him in 2018.

All works by Sanlé Sory · Exhibition catalogue (PDF)