Seydou Keita

"The thousands of portraits that Keïta took form an outstanding record of Malian society between the end of the Forties and the early Sixties. His photographs have become - in addition to their sociological value - works of art, free from tricks, eccentricity, or any attempt at illusion. As such they have acquired an objective character and a timeless dimension. Through his quest for accuracy, Seydou Keïta seems intuitively to have reinvented the art of the portrait. At a time of interest in other cultures, this work of rare beauty takes a deserved place in the world history of photgraphy.--Book jacket.