CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 11/19/2017

Always someone under the neon lights… Malick Sidibé: Mali Twist

“Studio Malick stayed open from morning to evening, or even midnight,” Brigitte Ollier writes in Staff Favorite Holiday Gift Book Malick Sidibé: Mali Twist. “There was always someone under the neon lights—friends, people playing cards, checkers, and ludo, passersby, tourists, night owls, and others. In the early evening, around five o’clock, Malick’s sons sometimes came by after school. One of them, Zakaria, remembers these special moments shared with his older brothers and cousins: ‘I liked everything that he liked. At home, it was rare to see him. We waited for him at lunchtime, he made us laugh, danced with his belly. After a nap and the afternoon prayer, he went back to the studio. He was very cheerful with the people, very human.’” Featured photograph was made in 1973.