Sanlé Sory

Bobo-Dioulasso was Burkina Faso’s cultural and economic hub, and Sanlé captured a broad range of its inhabitants – from the hip youngsters relishing its flourishing music scene, to the dignified elders fusing traditional and modern life – creating a fascinating portrait of a nation in the first decades of African independence. “Sory was a democratic photographer in a good sense,” Mazzoleni has said. “Rich people, poor people, religious people, artists, musicians; everyone could become a hero at his Volta studio.”