Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Taken the year his studio opened, this may be the first of many self-portraits Sitou made over his thirty-year career. In nearly all of them, he used photographic paraphernalia to indicate explicitly that photography is an integral part of his self-identity. Sitou had likely obtained several of the items from Bamako photographer Malick Sidibé, now an internationally recognized artist, who assisted Sitou in starting his business in Mopti. The backdrop, painted by local artist Sidi Cissé, was the first of several that Sitou used in his studio. To encourage the continued support of his clients, he changed his backdrop every two or three years; once it was taken down, it never returned.