Dandy cool

Everything about this stroller declares a style: a beret, dark sunglasses, a tunic scattered with shining dots, a long pendant necklace, a tasselled shoulder bag. The young man crosses the studio's painted set with an easy step, where palm trees and modern towers sketch a dream city behind a low wall of round stones. Beneath his feet lies the checkerboard of Volta Photo, the stage where the youth of Bobo-Dioulasso came to Sanlé Sory to put their elegance on record. The 6×6 square of the Rolleiflex, never cropped, takes in the whole silhouette, beret to shoes.

This limited edition print, numbered 1/8, is a black and white print in digigraphie on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315 g paper, presented in a museum frame with museum glass. Rediscovered in 2011, Sanlé Sory's archive is a landmark of african photography, held by MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the V&A and LACMA. On view at Sakana Gallery, Donostia, in Generation Volta, until 1 October 2026.

Print details

• Edition : 1/8
• 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 full-length silhouette, beret to shoes, before the studio's painted palm trees: this dandy sums up the elegance Sanlé Sory wrote into the history of African photography. Long known to few, his work now hangs at MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the V&A and LACMA. It was in Chicago, in 2018, that he held his first solo exhibition in an American museum. This full-length portrait belongs to that now firmly recognised body of work.

All works by Sanlé Sory · Exhibition catalogue (PDF)