A Conceptual Postcolonial Feminist Photo Studio
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 6:20 AM
Description
Dr. Allison Moore, Art historian, Critic, and Curator, Berlin, Germany
A Conceptual Postcolonial Feminist Photo Studio
To create Malian photographer Fatoumata Diabaté’s series Studio Photo de la Rue (Photo Studio on the Street), the artist set up her titular temporary photo studio literally on the street during such important photographic events as the Rencontres Africaines de la photographie, also called the Bamako Biennial. Here Diabaté revisits the tradition of studio portraiture from a feminist conceptual perspective, creating awareness and critique through the doubled strategies of social practice and appropriation of Malian photographic history. In Studio Photo de la Rue, some set-ups humorously recall Sidibé’s beach photos of sandy, half-naked young men in the studio while others mock (post)colonial relations; in one, a white woman sits wearing a Fulani-style hat, looking uncomfortable and holding a stick with string wrapped around it, while the artist herself, looking regal and dressed in a 1950s style outfit, holds a flower vase prop above her head. Perhaps because of its obvious historical borrowings from the famous commercial studio portraiture of Malick Sidibé, who was one of her mentors, Diabaté’s series has not yet been recognized as utilizing the conceptual strategies of feminist and postcolonial social practice art. Her incorporation of famous art world personalities and friends, such as Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté and French Cameroonian curator Simon Njami, is intermingled with postcolonial and feminist critiques, enabling the series to reflect on the history of its own making and to ask critical questions about the gendered history of commercial studio photography in Mali in relation to contemporary art photography.
Dr. Allison Moore is an art historian, critic and curator based in Berlin. She is the author of Embodying Relation: Art Photography in Mali (Duke University Press, 2020) and numerous articles, essays and reviews on contemporary African art and photography.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
Moore, Allison, "A Conceptual Postcolonial Feminist Photo Studio" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 20.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/20
A Conceptual Postcolonial Feminist Photo Studio
Dr. Allison Moore, Art historian, Critic, and Curator, Berlin, Germany
A Conceptual Postcolonial Feminist Photo Studio
To create Malian photographer Fatoumata Diabaté’s series Studio Photo de la Rue (Photo Studio on the Street), the artist set up her titular temporary photo studio literally on the street during such important photographic events as the Rencontres Africaines de la photographie, also called the Bamako Biennial. Here Diabaté revisits the tradition of studio portraiture from a feminist conceptual perspective, creating awareness and critique through the doubled strategies of social practice and appropriation of Malian photographic history. In Studio Photo de la Rue, some set-ups humorously recall Sidibé’s beach photos of sandy, half-naked young men in the studio while others mock (post)colonial relations; in one, a white woman sits wearing a Fulani-style hat, looking uncomfortable and holding a stick with string wrapped around it, while the artist herself, looking regal and dressed in a 1950s style outfit, holds a flower vase prop above her head. Perhaps because of its obvious historical borrowings from the famous commercial studio portraiture of Malick Sidibé, who was one of her mentors, Diabaté’s series has not yet been recognized as utilizing the conceptual strategies of feminist and postcolonial social practice art. Her incorporation of famous art world personalities and friends, such as Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté and French Cameroonian curator Simon Njami, is intermingled with postcolonial and feminist critiques, enabling the series to reflect on the history of its own making and to ask critical questions about the gendered history of commercial studio photography in Mali in relation to contemporary art photography.
Dr. Allison Moore is an art historian, critic and curator based in Berlin. She is the author of Embodying Relation: Art Photography in Mali (Duke University Press, 2020) and numerous articles, essays and reviews on contemporary African art and photography.
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