Les amies du village

Two young women stand side by side before a printed cloth stretched against the wall of a thatched house. A rug laid over the gravel marks out the stage: white headwraps knotted high, boldly patterned wrappers, steady gazes held until the shutter clicked. Sanlé Sory often carried his Volta Photo practice beyond the studio walls, photographing in the villages around Bobo-Dioulasso where he also ran his famous bals poussière. A cloth, a rug and daylight were enough to improvise a set, and the 6×6 square of his Rolleiflex, never cropped, gives this double portrait its calm frontality.

A limited edition print numbered 3/8, produced in digigraphie on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315 g paper and presented in a museum frame with museum glass, this black and white print belongs to a celebrated chapter of african photography: rediscovered in 2011, Sanlé Sory is held by MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the V&A and LACMA. On view in Generation Volta at Sakana Gallery, Donostia, until 1 October 2026.

Print details

• Edition : 3/8
• 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 cloth stretched against a wall, a rug on the gravel: nothing more is needed to make a studio. This picture states the portable grammar of West African studio photography, the kind associated with Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé, but which Sanlé Sory carried into the villages around Bobo-Dioulasso. Two friends, white headwraps knotted high, hold their gaze until the shutter clicks: the calm frontality that carried these portraits into the history of African photography.

All works by Sanlé Sory · Exhibition catalogue (PDF)