Seydou Keita

Danziger Gallery in collaboration with the Contemporary African Art Collection of Jean Pigozzi (CAAC) is proud to announce two forthcoming exhibitions of the renowned African photographer Seydou Keïta. We will be presenting Keïta’s work at the 1-54 African Art Fair in New York (May 3 – 5) and as our opening show of Fall 2019. Born circa 1921, Keïta lived in Bamako, Mali, where he ran a successful portrait studio taking pictures of local individuals and families. Essentially self-taught, Keïta developed his trademark style photographing his sitters in daylight against a variety of backdrops from plain drapes to vibrant African pattern. Some customers brought in items they wanted to be photographed with but Keïta also had a selection of accessories and clothing at his subject’s disposal. No matter the situation Keïta had a natural gift and a refined aesthetic that made his portraits true and distinctive works of art. Unknown to the West for most of his career, Keïta was “rediscovered” by westerners in the early 90’s including by the African Art collector Jean Pigozzi. In 1992 Pigozzi sent his curator André Magnin to Bamako to try to contact and meet Keïta. Magnin returned with 921 negatives and arranged for a printer in Paris to make the first archival prints of the images under Keïta’s supervision. In 1994 Keïta a was given a solo show at the Fondation Cartier followed by an impressive number of museum shows around the world. By the time of his death in 2001, Keïta was not only recognized as one of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century but particularly in his use of contrasting backdrops, his work has influenced a whole generation of artists, most notably painters Mickalene Thomas and Kehinde Wiley, and triggered a worldwide interest in African photography.

Find a broad range of photography on 1stDibs today.

The first permanent image created by a camera — which materialized during the 1820s — is attributed to Joseph Nicéphore Niépce. The French inventor was on to something for sure. Kodak introduced roll film in the 1880s, allowing photography to become more democratic, although cameras wouldn’t be universally accessible until several decades later. 

Digital photographic techniques, software, smartphone cameras and social-networking platforms such as Instagram have made it even easier in the modern era for budding photographers to capture the world around them as well as disseminate their images far and wide. 

What might leading figures of visual art such as Andy Warhol have done with these tools at their disposal?

Today, when we aren’t looking at the digital photos that inundate us on our phones, we look to the past to celebrate the photographers who have broken rules as well as records — provocative and prolific artists like Horst P. Horst, Lillian Bassman and Helmut Newton, who altered the face of fashion and portrait photography; visionary documentary photographers such as Gordon Parks, whose best-known work was guided by social justice; and pioneers of street photography such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, who shot for revolutionary travel magazines like Holiday with the likes of globetrotting society lensman Slim Aarons.

Find photographers you may not know in Introspective and The Study — where you’ll read about Berenice Abbott, who positioned herself atop skyscrapers for the perfect shot, or “conceptual artist-adventurer” Charles Lindsay, whose work combines scientific rigor with artistic expression, or Massimo Listri, known for his epic interiors of opulent Old World libraries. Photographer Jeannette Montgomery Barron was given a Kodak camera as a child. Later, she shot on Polaroid film before buying her first 35mm camera in her teens. Barron's stunning portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Warhol and other artists chronicle a crucial chapter of New York’s cultural history.

Throughout the past two centuries, photographers have used their medium to create expressive work that has resonated for generations. Shop a voluminous collection of this powerful fine photography on 1stDibs. Search by photographer to find the perfect piece for your living room wall, or spend some time with the work organized under various categories, such as landscape photography, nude photography and more.