Dans la chaleur de la nuit

Knees bent and arms in the air, a handful of dancers folds into the same beat beneath a black sky: an open shirt and flared trousers in the middle, long patterned skirts, a neon tube fixed near dry palm fronds on the right. As photographer of Volta Jazz and of the bals poussière, Sanlé Sory worked these nights by flash, far from the backdrops of his Volta Photo studio in Bobo-Dioulasso, his square Rolleiflex taking in the whole scene, never cropped.

Offered as a limited edition print (1/8), this black and white print is a digigraphie on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315 g paper, framed museum-style under museum glass. Rediscovered in 2011, the work of Sanlé Sory stands as a landmark of african photography, held by MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the V&A and LACMA. It hangs in Generation Volta at Sakana Gallery, Donostia, 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

These bodies folded into the same beat come from the golden age of Bobo-Dioulasso, between independence in 1960 and the 1983 coup that closed down its nightlife. Sanlé Sory then worked by flash, outside the studio, to seize the dance itself. In the history of African photography, these night scenes are the reverse of studio photography: no longer the chosen pose but the euphoria of a generation inventing its parties as it invented its country.

All works by Sanlé Sory · Exhibition catalogue (PDF)