Lucie

No props here, no painted backdrop: a young woman in profile, seated before a plain hung cloth, is enough. Lucie wears a light short-sleeved blouse and a patterned wrapper skirt; her braided hair, sculpted upward, draws her silhouette in the light of the Volta Photo studio in Bobo-Dioulasso. Her gaze drifts out of frame, thoughtful. Facing her, Sanlé Sory and his Rolleiflex, in the square 6x6 format, never cropped, that became the signature of the studio he opened in 1960. The restraint of the pose gives the portrait its tenderness.

This limited edition print of 1/8 is produced as a digigraphie on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315 g paper, in a museum frame with museum glass. Since Florent Mazzoleni rediscovered the archive in 2011, Sanlé Sory has entered MoMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, the V&A and LACMA. A quiet page of African photography, this black and white print is shown 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

No prop, no backdrop: nothing but a profile against a bare cloth. This is studio photography in its purest form, the form that ties Sanlé Sory to Seydou Keïta, whose portraits framed the face like a medal. Stripped of every effect, Lucie holds the image by the sheer rightness of the gaze and the sculpted hair. This quiet portrait reminds us that the history of African photography was also played out in the silence of a pose, far from the nights and the parties.

All works by Sanlé Sory · Exhibition catalogue (PDF)