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Malick Sidibé
Back Views [Vues de Dos]
2001
Gelatin silver print, in original frame of reverse-painted glass, tape, cardboard, string
8 3/8 x 6 ins (21.3 x 15.2 cm) (overall)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Purchase, James J. Ross Gift, 2003, Accession Number: 2003.123, © Malick Sidibé
LL/61700
Included in the "In and Out of the Studio: Photographic Portraits from West Africa" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (31 August 2015–3 January 2016).
Curatorial description (Accessed 7 October 2015)
In the early 2000s, following his international success, Sidibé produced a number of portraits of his friends, neighbors, and family members standing with their back to the camera, echoing the stance of film actors as they exit a scene. According to scholars, Sidibé began developing this pose as early as the 1960s. Here, he pushes the self-assured attitude conveyed by this pose to the extreme, withholding completely the sitter’s facial features. In this series, Sidibé questions established conventions of portraiture and leaves the viewer wondering about the sitter’s identity.
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