African Photo : Mama Casset

France
2014
fr
en
43'

Direction: Elisa Mereghetti

Mama Casset is among the great studio photographers in sub-Saharan Africa. In Dakar, Senegal, he fulfilled the same role as Seydou Keita did in Mali. An artistic and social role, that of magnifying each face and offering an iconography to the whole of society. The great accuracy of this film is to show these images and to collect the testimonies of relatives, as well as artists, photographers, historians and Senegalese celebrities. They know better than anyone how to reweave all the private, artistic and historical threads of this life's journey.

African Photo : Mama Casset

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Synopsis

Mama Casset is among the great studio photographers in sub-Saharan Africa. In Dakar, Senegal, he fulfilled the same role as Seydou Keita did in Mali. An artistic and social role, that of magnifying each face and offering an iconography to the whole of society. The great accuracy of this film is to show these images and to collect the testimonies of relatives, as well as artists, photographers, historians and Senegalese celebrities. They know better than anyone how to reweave all the private, artistic and historical threads of this life's journey.

What you will find in this film

An astonishing variety of portraits • The story of Mama Casset • His early beginnings as an assistant photographer • The story of his legendary studio, African Photo • Testimonies of relatives and artists who worked with him • His way of preparing models to sublimate them • The historical and sociological value of his work • His work in the bush and on the personalities of his time • The huge success of his studio in Dakar • Original framing • His loyalty to black and white • The great events of recent years

Keywords

Portrait Black & White Studio photography

The paradox is, by calling upon the powers of forgery, he documented his time.

Fanny Douarche

Film chapters

summary 00:00 The enigma of vocation

summary 06:36 Studio, method and muse

summary 15:20 Studio portraits, bush portraits

summary 25:44 Another image of Africa

summary 36:40 The 1980s, the turning point

Photography at 24 images per second!

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The authors/artists

Elisa Mereghetti

Further exploration

• L’AFRIQUE PAR ELLE-MÊME - by Anne Marie Bouttiaux, Alain d’Hooghe, Pascal Martin Saint Leon ; 2003 ; Musée royal d’Afrique centrale de Tervuren et Revue Noire edition ; in French

• MAMA CASSET - authors: Pascal Martin Saint Leon and Jean Loup Pivin ; 2012 ; La Fabrica

• ANTHOLOGIE DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE AFRICAINE, DE L’OCÉAN INDIEN ET DE LA DIASPORA - 1998 ; Revue Noire editions ; in French

• MAMA CASSET ET LES PRÉCURSEURS DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE AU SÉNÉGAL - 1994 ; Revue Noire editions ; in French

Mama Casset’s Revue Noire Page

A Reminder of a Forgotten Elegance - Quartz Africa Article

Identity, Aesthetics, and the Social Roles of Portraiture in Saint Louis du Senegal - A Study by Shailee Wilson