The Brooklyn Museum in New York is presenting the largest North American survey of renowned Malian photographer Seydou Keïta's work to date. The exhibition, titled "Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens," features nearly 300 photographs, including some never-before-seen images, alongside personal belongings and vintage cameras that belonged to the legendary artist who lived from 1921 to 2001.
Guest curator Catherine E. McKinley has assembled this comprehensive showcase that highlights Keïta's extraordinary body of work, characterized by hand-woven and dyed fabrics, elaborate gold and beaded jewelry, women with hennaed hands and feet, and military men in suits. Born in Bamako, Mali, during French colonial rule, Keïta developed his studio practice against a backdrop of significant political unrest and legal restrictions that made his artistic journey particularly remarkable.
Keïta's career flourished despite facing substantial obstacles, including French colonial laws that forbade photography by Africans in 1935. Undeterred by these restrictions, he persisted in his craft and eventually became Bamako's most sought-after photographer. For more than 25 years, he captured portraits of Bamakois from all walks of life, including government officials, intellectuals, artists, and everyday members of Mali's emerging middle class.
McKinley, who has been studying African photography and textiles since college and is now almost 60, explained that while she worked on this exhibition for just under two years, it represents a lifetime of dedication to the subject. She was first introduced to Keïta's work in 1991 at the Museum for African Art, where her fascination immediately transformed into deep admiration. The pivotal moment in developing this exhibition came when she traveled to Bamako and met with the Keïta family, which provided crucial insights and access to previously unknown materials.
The timing of this exhibition is particularly significant, as McKinley noted that this is the most extensive North American show Keïta has had, which is remarkable considering he was discovered over 30 years ago. She emphasized that this year is important for both Keïta and African photography in general, with major exhibitions opening and the Museum of Modern Art planning a large retrospective in December, putting African photography prominently on the cultural radar.
The process of acquiring loans for the exhibition involved working with various sources, including private collections and institutions. Jean Pigozzi, who holds the copyright and owns most of Keïta's works, was a key collaborator. McKinley also sought pieces from individual collections and institutions such as the Chicago Art Institute and the Musée National du Mali, making special efforts to represent previously unknown collections, whether family-owned or small family-run archives on the African continent. To her delight, some of the finest materials were found in these lesser-known collections, with textiles held by families proving superior to those in Western institutions.
What sets this exhibition apart is its inclusion of textiles, clothing, jewelry, accessories, and other objects that provide intimate context to Keïta's artistic vision. McKinley explained that her extensive travels to Africa since 1991 taught her about the immense value of community, which guided her curatorial approach. Rather than simply displaying 200 photographs with a standard narrative, she wanted to explore who Keïta was as a person, which required delving into more intimate aspects of his life and work that could only be discovered through conversations with his family.
The exhibition serves as both a history lesson and a masterclass in design and spatial aesthetics, showcasing how Keïta masterfully blended these elements. McKinley came to realize that this could be considered an exhibition about design, as Keïta has been somewhat overlooked as a design force despite being deeply embedded in popular culture. While people often group him with other photographers like Malick Sidibé, his legacy is distinctly specific, with a unique approach to patterning that no one else possessed.
Keïta's work represents a powerful example of photography as an act of agency over oneself and one's image. Operating during a time when French laws in 1935 forbade and censored photography by African photographers, Keïta broke all conventional rules. He managed to earn substantial income and maintain an elite lifestyle when most people could barely afford a single photograph, all while being entirely self-taught. His success represented a lesson in looking beyond received narratives, and remarkably, his work carried deep political significance despite his own admission that he was not a political man.
The exhibition reveals the politics of fashion and how it relates to the critical nature of Keïta's work and his immense impact on contemporary photography. McKinley emphasized that if Keïta had been working just ten years later, his images would not have possessed the same vitality. He worked during a unique historical moment when society was reconfiguring itself, with independence on the horizon, creating what she described as "a perfect stew that couldn't be reproduced at any other moment." This historical context is most evident in the fashion choices of his subjects – the materials people used and the ways things were styled could only have existed during that specific period.
Interestingly, Keïta's first appearance in a Western exhibition was anonymous. His work was included without attribution in "Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art" at the New Museum in 1991, displaying the photographs as completely removed from authorship. McKinley found this bizarre, noting that it took many years before he was properly identified. She remembered that show and how those unattributed photos made her feel euphoric because of their extraordinary beauty, viewing this as an important lesson for approaching such work with an extra layer of care, especially in the current political climate.
Regarding what she hopes visitors will gain from the exhibition, McKinley emphasized the importance of learning to truly look at art. She explained that when viewers see the patterning and complexity in Keïta's work, it takes considerable time to learn how to read each image and understand its multiple layers. She hopes the exhibition will teach people to look with their own perspective and to slow down their viewing process.
McKinley's personal connection to this type of imagery stems from her childhood, when her household had magazines like Ebony, Jet, and National Geographic, where images of Africa were typically limited to depictions of either poverty or romanticized portrayals of the continent. When she began studying African photographers like Keïta, it was like learning an entirely new way of seeing and understanding visual representation.
She praised Keïta's unique ability to read directly into a person's soul, describing his talent for entering people's consciousness or spirit through his photography. This gift allowed him to create portraits that transcended mere documentation, becoming windows into the lives and aspirations of his subjects during a pivotal moment in Mali's history.
"Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens" will remain on view at the Brooklyn Museum through March 8, 2026, offering visitors an unprecedented opportunity to engage with the work of one of Africa's most influential photographers and to understand the broader context of African photography's evolution and significance in the global art world.
