CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/26/2017

The wonderful recently discovered studio portraits of Sory Sanlé

"La Relève" (1982) is reproduced from Sory Sanlé: Volta Photo 1965–85, the irresistible new collection of recently discovered “golden age” Burkina Faso studio portraits from Reel Art Press & Morton Hill. Sanlé traveled by motorbike to remote villages with his own power supply, "throwing parties, setting up lights and playing records so that people could enjoy modern life and dress up in their finest clothes,” Florent Mazzoleni writes. “Sory worked as a reporter, a record sleeve illustrator, an official photographer but mostly as a studio photographer … He created his own studio backdrops and these paintings—a modern city, a beach boardwalk, an airplane or an antique column—were quite outstanding and unlike those of any other photographers in his country. An active character who ran, lifted weights and practiced karate, Sory also captured his own physical evolution with numerous self-portraits, some of which are instant classics.”