Archive of Malian Photography

Archive of Malian Photography – Cultural Heritage Preservation & Accessibility

Project Description

The Archive of Malian Photography (AMP) currently provides access to preserved and digitized collections of five important photographers in Mali, West Africa. Funded by the British Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities, since 2011, a collaborative team of U.S. and Malian conservators has cleaned, scanned, cataloged, and rehoused more than 100,000 negatives from the archives of Mamadou Cissé, Adama Kouyaté, Abdourahmane Sakaly, Malick Sidibé, and Tijani Sitou for long-term preservation and access. Spanning the 1940s-90s, this collection reveals changes and continuities in political and cultural practices, social trends, and photographic production during and after the region’s transition from French colonialism to national independence, challenging global perceptions of Africa and Africans.

Map showing the location of Mali in Africa

Impact

Although global interest in African photography has flourished over the past 20 years, access to photographers’ studio archives has been limited and published materials are minimal. Retained in private archives, most of these materials are not cataloged, properly preserved, or internationally accessible. Stored in harsh climactic conditions, the physical integrity of these collections have remained in serious jeopardy and, due to the high commercial value of these archives, these materials have been vulnerable to mistreatment and theft. AMP addresses these issues by safeguarding original materials in Mali from further damage and theft and promoting their global accessibility to research and education in the form of low-resolution digital collections online (amp.matrix.msu.edu) and, in 2018, at the Maison Africaine de la Photographie in Bamako.