---
description: Jehad Nga photographs the small, storied one-room home and studio of renowned portrait artist Malick Sidibe, light years from the art centers of the world and exactly where he wants to be in his life and in his career — the same neighbor to Malians that he has always been, despite the fame that has gradually found him.
title: Inside the Photographer’s Studio: Malick Sidibe
image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd8860b08e7ebdb38/6987a66c2dce014ec59e05ea/jehad_nga_mali005.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9
---
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# Inside the Photographer's Studio: Malick Sidibe
by
[Jehad Nga](/author/jehad-nga/)
## Jehad Nga
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Jan 16, 2014 10:45 PM CUT
Inside Malick Sidibe's Bamako studio, a collection of Sidibe's old cameras takes up an entire wall.
Inside Malick Sidibe's Bamako studio, a collection of Sidibe's old cameras takes up an entire wall.Jehad Nga for TIME
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[Jehad Nga](/author/jehad-nga/)
## Jehad Nga
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Jan 16, 2014 10:45 PM CUT
His photos have been prized on the international art market for years and adorn the walls of leading photo galleries across the world, but 76-year-old Malick Sidibe still resides in a one-room home in Mali so timeless that it feels as if the air within hasn’t stirred in decades. Marked boxes — _1972, 1968, 1965_ — containing much of Malick’s vast archive balance atop one another, stretching to the ceiling. Orphaned 6 x 6 frames dot the floor. A large wooden crate bulges with ruined cameras in a tangled mass. Occasionally the scorching air outside shifts, sending a breeze through the room that does nothing to dispel the overwhelming heat inside. On a good day, electricity powers a single bulb that barely illuminates the otherwise pitch-dark space. Decades’ worth of Malian dust covers every surface.
Voici ma montre et ma bague (Here is My Watch and My Ring), 1964 Malick Sidibé—Courtesy of Vassar College
Malick is not surrounded by the material trappings one might expect a major contributor to the contemporary arts landscape to enjoy, or pursue, nor do I imagine he spends much time obsessing over his place in the photographic firmament. In this way he is, to my mind, the perfect artist. His wives and children constantly attend to him, and while inside his home time seems not merely to slow but to cease altogether, the courtyard outside buzzes with activity. A national hero, his contribution to his country’s historical record has, for many, crafted _the_ image of Mali.
In his home, light years from the art centers of the world, Malick is, I trust, exactly where he wants to be in his life and in his career — the same neighbor to Malians that he has always been, despite the fame that has gradually found him.
Housed in a busy suburb of Bamako, Mali’s capital, Malick’s tiny studio has a readily detectable pulse — a touch shallower than I imagine it once was, but still present. The studio itself has become as much a subject in his photos as the countless men, women and children who have set foot inside the place to have their portraits made, or simply to visit with the local legend. The portraits, meanwhile, are remarkable, each one of the thousands of pictures somehow teasing out a central, telling element of the individual’s character. These portraits, one realizes, are evidence of a rare and intimate exchange, an empathy between sitter and portraitist.
Digging through Malick’s archive I continually encountered series after series of photos that he had started and never finished, pictures that were unlike anything else I had seen from him. His challenges to the methodology of traditional studio portraits were clearly evident in these projects, and my admiration for his work — and for him as an artist and as a man — brought me back to his home every single day while I was in Bamako. All my questions about his techniques and his philosophy of photography having run their course, I was content at last to simply visit and sit with him, time and again_._ I suspect he makes everyone feel as welcome as I felt.
As a photographer, being around Malick in his small, storied, marvelous studio stirred something in me. The unflinching commitment to his ever-evolving, self-realized process, and his evident contentment with the place he has carved out for himself in the world of art, is both humbling and inspiring; his example forces me to engage the personal fears and hesitancies I suffer in my own work. The perfect artist, it seems to me now, fully gives himself over to a hard-earned trust in his own work, in his own methods. He doesn’t just avoid the creative roadblocks that so many of us place in our own paths; instead, he is so quietly confident making his own way that the roadblocks simply don’t exist.
---
**_Malick Sidibe_** _is a Malian photographer. He is represented by_ [_Jack Shainman Gallery_](http://www.jackshainman.com/artist-images39.html "undefined") _in New York,_ [_Afronova Gallery_](http://www.afronova.com/-artists-.html "undefined") _in Johannesburg and_ [_Fifty One Fine Art Photography_](http://www.gallery51.com/index.php?navigatieid=9&fotograafid=47 "undefined") _in Antwerp._
**_Jehad Nga_** _is a New York-based photographer._ _LightBox has previously featured Nga’s_ [_Green Book Project_](http://lightbox.time.com/2012/09/27/the-green-book-project-by-jehad-nga/#1 "undefined") _as well as work about_ [_his Libyan roots_](http://lightbox.time.com/2011/10/21/return-to-libya-reflections-on-a-photographers-personal-conflict/#1 "undefined") _and a photo essay on_ [_the world’s biggest refugee complex_](http://lightbox.time.com/2011/07/21/haven-and-hell-the-worlds-largest-refugee-camp/ "undefined")_._
---
The following photographs were taken in Bamako, Mali in March 2013\. A curtain used as a backdrop hangs in Malick Sidibe's Bamako studio. The curtain has been in use since the opening of the studio in 1960 and never has been replaced. Many of Sidibe's most famous photographs feature the backdrop. Jehad Nga for TIME
A view from inside Malick Sidibe's now cluttered and dusty Bamako studio. Virtually nothing has been thrown away over the years from the studio including broken cameras and studio equipment. Jehad Nga for TIME
Malick Sidibe's photo enlarger now out of use sits in a corner of the photographer's Bamako home. Jehad Nga for TIME
Inside Malick Sidibe's Bamako studio, a strobe lighting system has been updated to accomidate his son Kareem's job as an I.D. photographer. Jehad Nga for TIME
Equipment piles up in all corners inside Malick Sidibe's Bamako home and studio. Jehad Nga for TIME
On the patio of Malick Sidibe's Bamako studio, photographs taken by Sidibe as well as ones featuring him over the years decorate a wooden wall. Jehad Nga for TIME
Inside Malick Sidibe's home, a huge archive of negatives sits piled up and unprotected. Sidibe and his sons are trying to find people to help them begin to digitally archive his work before much of it is ruined by moisture and dust. Jehad Nga for TIME
Samba Sidibe (Malick's younger brother) sits on the floor surrounded by old studio equipment and film negatives in Malick's bedroom. Jehad Nga for TIME
Inside Malick Sidibe's Bamako studio, a collection of Sidibe's old cameras takes up an entire wall. Jehad Nga for TIME
Malick Sidibe sits in his bed in his Bamako home. With temperatures rising to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, the heat take its toll on the aging Sidibe. His younger brother Samba and his sons help keep him cool using a hand fan. Jehad Nga for TIME
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