Photography and Orality
Dialogues in Bamako, Dakar and Elsewhere

AN EXPLORATION OF THE CITY

Q Where did the inspiration for your Rear-View Mirror series come from? Do you see this series as an exploration of cities?
HD Yes, it’s a kind of exploration of cities, but not specific cities, since in most of my photographs in this series, you can't distinguish between the different cities. What I’m interested in is the common points between African cities. This is a work in progress that I’ve been developing for a number of years. The idea behind my use of the rear-view mirror is to send a warning to my fellow Africans to say, "Be careful, everything you see, everything you think is real is not actually reality." It’s true that Europeans also have preconceived ideas about Africa, particularly people who’ve never been to Africa. But honestly, that aspect is not what interests me. For the moment, my interest is focused on Africa. I want to work in Africa and explore subjects relating to African cities

CAPTURING MOVEMENT IN CITIES

Q How did you go about taking the photographs for your Rear-View Mirror series?
HD I started this series last year in Kampala, in Uganda. My idea was to take portraits of African cities in all their action and movement, so I rented motorcycle taxis to allow me to take photos. I wanted to create compositions using the reflections in the motorbikes' rear-view mirrors. It was a way for me to capture my subjects in motion, without them being aware of it. It meant that I could photograph people in natural situations. I continued this series in Nairobi, Lubumbashi in the Congo, in Lagos and in Bamako. Motorbikes are a common means of transport in many African cities. They allow people to travel around at a low cost, even if they’re not particularly safe.

COMING OUT OF THE STUDIO

Q You have said that you don’t do portraiture. What do you mean by that? When we look at your Rear-View Mirror series, the images seem to be primarily portraits, taken in a street context.
HD I’m not saying that I don’t do portraits. Portrait photography has become a reference point for photography in Africa, especially in Mali. You can see this in the work of great portrait photographers like Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé. What I actually meant was that it’s important for us now to move beyond this Western view that sees African photography as consisting almost exclusively of portraiture. It’s true that portrait photography is extremely important to us. It’s a way of expressing one’s image, one’s identity, but African photography is so much more than this clichéd idea of portraiture. If you look at the collections in all the major museums around the world, what kind of African photography do you see? Studio photography. It’s as though all of African photography, and particularly Malian photography, were limited to portraits. This is a view we even find among young photographers of my generation. But we young people have a duty to history to call people’s attention to the diversity of African photography. That’s why I show different kinds of portraits in my Rear-View Mirror series. They are simply people going about their daily lives in the city streets. They’re not photographed in a studio or living room, or any specific setting.

A DUTY TO CONSTRUCT A DIFFERENT IMAGE OF AFRICA

Q Do you consider it vitally important for Africa to be able to produce its own images of itself?
HD African photographers have a duty to construct an African approach to photography. Part of my role as a photographer is to try to alter the way people see African photography. It’s important to photograph the environment that you know best. If I go to Europe to take pictures of European life, I wouldn’t be able to photograph anything that hasn’t already been documented by Europeans. My work as a photographer today is directed first and foremost to Africa, to African audiences, even if there’s no real market for photography in Africa and I can’t make a living from my work there. I see it as my responsibility to show a different image of Africa. I’m obviously not alone in making that claim, since there are other photographers in Africa who also have a different approach to photography and who want to dedicate their work to African people before exporting it to Europe.

Interview conducted in Stuttgart, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, 19.11.2014
by Finn Schütt

THE BODY AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Q Can you tell us about your series entitled Loss of Interest?
HD The original idea behind this series was an attempt to understand my own body a little better by placing myself in unusual environments that were abandoned and in a state of decay. I chose these particular settings to exhibit my body because they seemed to have a connection with my dark skin. The aim in these images is to highlight the effect that time has on us and our environment, because everything is destined to disappear one day. I wanted to stimulate people’s awareness of the ephemeral nature and inevitable deterioration of our bodies and the places that surround us. It was very important to me to choose locations that had a rich history and shared heritage, even if they were abandoned sites. I wanted to show these spaces as part of a larger context, always portrayed in relation to me, without necessarily positioning myself at the centre of the image.

BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER IN MALI

Q What opportunities for funding and other support are available for photography, and photographers, in Bamako today?
HD Nowadays, there’s no real support for art in Mali, particularly for photography. The Malian Culture Ministry only allocates 0.45 per cent of its national budget to culture, while 80% of this budget is dedicated to the operations of the ministry. That shows that there’s virtually no support for culture, and this is even more extreme when it comes to photography. The European Union used to be the main source of funding for Malian culture, but with the recent recession, all funding has been suspended. Malian photographers don’t benefit from any particular social networks or channels of communication to support the profession. Each of us struggles to get by the best way we can.

Written interview conducted on 27.07.2014