By reducing that barrier between himself and his subjects, he effectively immerses the viewer in the culture of Mali and its multiplicity, from rural tribesmen in “circumcision” garb and hunters draped in necklaces of cowrie shells to a reclining wedding guest with money pinned to her hat to fellow photographers, cameras in hand or around their necks, to young urban professionals in suits to smiling children (one girl playfully wears her sunglasses upside-down) to a famous Malian writer to a young man in a camouflage shirt who salutes, signifying his desire to be a soldier (a position of prestige, Deschamps said, but nonetheless an image loaded with sad irony, given the subsequent turn of events).
Deschamps’ photos are complemented by his installation of a traditional Mali photo shop, where he photographed some of his SUNY-New Paltz students and colleagues accompanied by their choice of props and hand-painted backdrop. He commissioned Malian sign-painter Jo Kone to paint seven backdrops, depicting a village, airport, swimming pool and other local scenes. Kone also painted portraits based on Deschamps’ photographs, cutting them out and mounting them on plywood, which are displayed on a gallery wall. In addition, the exhibition includes several of Deschamps’ small wooden models of specific Malian photo shops, each with a different Kone backdrop and tiny curtains, chair, table or stool. These sculptural elements help recreate the street culture of Mali in the gallery, as conceived by Deschamps: the next best thing to being there.
Accompanying the show is a companion exhibition of the work of five renowned Malian portrait photographers, dating from the 1950s to the 1970s, which provides historical perspective. It includes a short film consisting of an interview with Malick Sidibe, Mali’s most famous living photographer, which perhaps provides a clue to the backstory of the radiant energy emanating from Deschamps’ images: To photograph people successfully, the photographer himself must be smiling, Sidibe says.
Deschamps’ photos serve as a wonderful segue to the work of the Malian photographers, which provides a fascinating introduction to a little-known chapter of photography history and also, by virtue of comparison, shows the degree to which Deschamps’ images resonate with the country’s culture of photography. Unlike his work, all the images are black-and-white, but all are also portraits (in the film, Sidibe talks about photography in Mali as an extremely social artform), and many were taken in studios similar to what Deschamps has created in the gallery. The earliest shots, taken by Seydou Keita in the 1950s, situated the subjects against backdrops hung outside, to make up for the lack of electric lights.
Some portraits are pairs, reflecting the African fascination with twins – though in this case the pairs, though identically or similarly dressed, aren’t actual twins. One of my favorites is Sidebe’s 1972 photograph of a row of decked-out guys in chevron-patterned shirts and tight bellbottoms, their backs to the camera, titled Very Good Friends in the Same Outfit. Many of the images reflect an upbeat modernity, in the wake of Mali’s independence in 1960. Two young women lounge before a telephone, and a young man poses on a spiffy motorbike before a painted backdrop of a highway (it’s poignantly titled Goodbye Friends).
The Dorsky has published two catalogues, one titled F. Deschamps Photo-Rapide (the name that Deschamps gave to his Malian enterprise, which appears on the sign that he commissioned Jo Kone to paint for his photo shop installation) and the other on the Malian photographers, titled Malian Portrait Photography. Deschamps himself has also published five books documenting his work in Mali, which are displayed on a table in the Dorsky gallery. One focuses on another series of photographs taken from the front seat of cars and capturing the dusty, dangerous life of the Malian road. Although unfortunately not represented in the show, these photographs present another type of frame: the windshield and dashboard, each complemented by objects reflective of the car-owner’s personality, framing the view of roadside sights. It’s an effective device for literally thrusting the viewer into the Malian scene.
In his photographs of Mali, Deschamps has risen to the challenge of creating photographs that evoke the spirit of the local culture rather than merely documenting it, while simultaneously creating beautiful multilayered images of worlds within worlds, which reveal the essence of the photograph as a framing device. By making his picture-taking itself the subject of his photographs – an exchange, or conceptual frame, from which we happen to learn about his subjects – he lets us in on what’s happening around the edges. Deschamps’ frames, literal and otherwise, never fail to enthrall – in part because they seem so natural and fun, but also because they serve a grander purpose: transforming the photograph from an object that deadens experience, by freezing time, into a kind of freewheeling collage, an echo and record of encounters, collaborations and budding friendships.
“Photo-Rapide: Francois Deschamps and Malian Portrait Photography” will be on display at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY-New Paltz until April 14, Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Studio Mali” is on display at Fovea Exhibitions until April 7, Friday through Sunday from 12 noon to 6 p.m. Deschamps will be “in residence” at Fovea Exhibitions taking photos of visitors on February 9 and March 9 from 5 to 8 p.m.
“Photo-Rapide: Francois Deschamps & Malian Portrait Photography,” through April 14, Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz; (845) 257-3844, www.newpaltz.edu/museum. “Studio Mali,” through April 7, Friday-Sunday, 12 noon-6 p.m., Fovea Exhibitions, 143 Main Street, Beacon; (845) 202-3443.
