Artist
Adama Kouyaté
Via Ségou, Mali
Photographer Adama Kouyaté was born in the French Sudanese village of Bougouni (now Mali) in 1928, the son of a master shoemaker. A contemporary of Malik Sidibé and Seydou Keïta, his introduction to photography occurred on Christmas day in 1946, when he sat with a friend for a studio portrait in Bamako. The picture was so beautiful that from then on he dreamed of only one thing: becoming a photographer. When in 1947 he decided to learn photography, he approached the masters, learning from the likes of pioneering photographers such as Bakary Doumbia and Pierre Garnier, “the white master of West African photography.” After much insistence, Kouyaté became a laboratory assistant in Garnier's studio, “Photo Hall Soudanais.”
In 1949, Adama Kouyaté opened his first studio, "Photo Hall Kati,” in Kati, near Bamako. In 1964, he left for Ouagadougou in Burkina, then in 1966 went to the Ivory Coast city of Bouaké. He finally returned to Mali in 1969 and settled in Ségou, located on the route to Dogon country. His studio, “Photo Hall d’Union,” located on the central commercial Elhadj Oumar Tall Street, was an immediate success. At 82, Kouyaté continues to work there daily.
