One of West Africa’s most prolific photographers, Sanlé Sory (b.1943, Burkina Faso) took more than a million portraits, over seven decades, showing the profound social and political changes in Burkina Faso.
Colour Years at The Photographers Gallery captures a lesser-known chapter of his career. His colour prints, meticulously restored from the negatives in his archive, will be on show, alongside Volta Jazz record covers featuring his portraits of the influential bands that flourished after Burkina Faso’s independence.
GOST Books are pleased to share the first book published in collaboration with the Photographers’ Gallery, written and edited by Taous Dahmani, one of the gallery’s curators which coincides - Volta Colour.
Volta Colour explores the shift from black and white to colour photography through the work of one of West Africa's most prolific photographers. Sanlé Sory was born in 1943 and opened his photo studio in Bobo-Dioulasso in 1960. Over many years, he took more than a million pictures showing how his community changed. Sory welcomed change. When asked why he switched to colour in the 1980s, he said: "When you are in a place where everybody dances, you have to try to dance like everybody else!"
Learn more about the exhibition here