In 2022 Seydou Camara, the Malian professional photographer meets Jan Dirk van der Burg in Amsterdam. They exchange their shots, each gives value to the artistic work of the other. This will give birth to Jan’s initiative to stay in Mali for an intercultural exchange workshop through a Photography Workshop. This Workshop was an ideal setting to professionalize 12 Malian photographers in art photography.
In Bamako, we appreciate photos only during major events and family ceremonies. A professional photographer does not sound optimistic in this society largely immersed in smartphone photos. While the city of three Caymans, Bamako is an essential plate of world photography through the Bamako Encounters, an event that takes place every two years around photography. In view of this deplorable observation deeply shared by the animators of this profession which is in constant evolution in the world. A collective of photographers united within YAMAROUPHOTO was born to take another look at Malian photography at the international level.
« We want to restore the country to its former glory on the world photography scene. It is for us a historic recognition to the remarkable work done by the pioneers of photography in Mali, whose works continue to travel around the world. ” noted Seydou Camara, Artistic Director of Yamarouphoto.
@yamarouphoto Seydou camara in green t-shirt teaching photography to young internally displaced people
A specialization workshop in art photography of international standard
Ce workshop is implemented through the project “ Between fragility and rigidity by Yamarouphoto, a community initiative, supported by the Strichting Doen. This advanced workshop in artistic photography, which is officially launched on July 21 at Yamarouphoto’s headquarters in Sotuba in the Malian capital, is led by a Dutch photography expert, Jan Dirk van der Burg.
@yamarouphoto Jan Dirk Van der Burg and formation
Through a call for applications, 12 Malian professional and amateur photographers were selected to follow this training. It aimed to perfect participants in the new techniques of contemporary photography. The purpose of this training in the words of the initiators is to raise the level of the beneficiaries in the face of the rapid revolution in photography techniques.
@Abdoulsalam the 12 certified participants with the trainer
“The idea for this training was born from an observation. We live in a time when photography is constantly evolving thanks in particular to new technologies. We have deemed it necessary to organize training that will bring Malian photographers up to speed to adapt to the new techniques of the digital world. said Seydou Camara Artistic Director of Yamarouphoto. He also indicates that a particular emphasis is placed on art photography which remains almost a new angle in Malian photography tamed by event photography.
@yamarouphoto Seydou Camara in front of journalists
Art photography is the possibility for an artist (photographer) to communicate by exploring their creative potential. It can take the form of landscapes, portraits, still lifes or abstract images. According to specialists in this style of photography, which differs from photojournalism, before embarking on art photography, it is important to listen to the advice of professionals and to take an interest in the achievements of the genre.
@yamarouphoto Jan Dirk the trainer with his interpreter in front of the press
The restitution of the work of the 12 participants
For the Malian case, Jan did not want to impose a theme or any traditional learning procedure on the participants. Everyone will have the freedom to develop their own subject and will be assisted by the trainer in their approach through modern techniques of photographic art.
@yamarouphoto
Jan Dirk will say himself that he came to Bamako to share his experience with his Malian colleagues. « Is am not there to teach them the basic techniques of photography because I already know that each of them has these notions. I’m here to give tips for reading, reviewing and analyzing an image he says.
@yamarouphoto
Eight women and four men who took part in this workshop presented their work to the general public after ten days of work. This workshop allowed the twelve participants to make extraordinary creations, facilitated by photography expert Jan Dirk van Burg nicknamed Yiriba Diarra, a Malian name. Moving stories are told, inspiring critiques and analyzes made through contemporary photography.
@yamarouphoto work of a participant on the forge
One of the participants, Fatuma Harber, Blogger, let go of waste in the Malian capital. His shot of a mountain of waste near a hotel in the middle of town, is a photographic criticism of thewaste management in Bamako.
@fatouma harber his art photography on the management of waste in Bamako realizedand during the workshop
This is Sissoko will talk about intimacy through the “Baaya” a pearl that Malian women wear on their hips. This bead is symbolic, only to be seen by the wife’s husband in their privacy chamber in the deep night. The child that she was, Kani, paid no attention if not knew anything about this tradition around this pretty shiny pearl that she wore and gloated at anyone. She was called names. An inspiration drawn from this story, from which she makes a cliché with the pearls on her head to say that she has nothing to do with these stories around the “Baaya”.
@kani sissoko his portrait with his “Baaya” on his head
For his part, Alfouseyni Konaté focuses his eyes on the “dead”, it is not the inert dead that we know but those who feed the living. This story is inspired by real events in Malian society, heads of families after their deaths, their offspring no longer do anything. They live on the bequeathed inheritance, or more often the family is destroyed with the profit of these material goods left by the parents.
@konaté his work on the dead who feed the living
Others expressed themselves through art photography on female circumcision, discrimination against women in work spaces, blacksmiths’ work was displayed, the large thrift store market in Bamako was artistically photographed with these delicious stories behind.
@tscom le cliché du pontbadan (marchit’s from the Friperie de Bamako)
Better, another revealed the unconditional love that reigned between her and her late mother, with dazzling emotions behind.
@yamaroupho a participant next to her works which are the portraits of her mother
haidara jumped into the pitiful den of female students who leave the interior of the country to come and study in the big city. Because of the difficulty linked to their living conditions, they are often forced to become prostitutes at night to try to smile.
@mohaventure Sidiki next to the portraits of the young student who prostitutes herself at night
The place of henna in Malian society as well as the lives of tailors were also part of this exhibition by participants of the Yamarouphoto International Workshop.
@yamarouphoto some shots taken by the participants before the hanging
@yamarouphoto les yamaristes