Sanlé Sory's Colour Years Opens at The Photographers' Gallery, London

The Photographers' Gallery in London presents Sanlé Sory: Colour Years from 14 October 2026 to 21 February 2027, an exhibition of later colour work by the Burkinabe studio photographer. Curated by Taous Dahmani, the show foregrounds Sory's post-black-and-white archive, which holds thousands of colour negatives, many never printed beyond their original commission. Dahmani argues that Sory's colour practice marks a significant shift in the history of West African photography, moving beyond the 1960s and 70s black-and-white portraits that have dominated Western readings. She rejects the framing of West African studio photography as a fixed historical event and instead calls for a re-anchoring of these images within functional, political and social histories, treating both sitter and printer as producer and collaborator. The later portraits of street vendors emerged as commissioned portraiture declined with the arrival of cameraphones; clients requested colour even though it was more expensive and meant Sory could no longer work alone. Dahmani reads the images as socially informed style studies, noting hand-me-downs and counterfeit designerwear, rather than fashion-first documents. She criticises a dictated, fetishised history that turns African nations into islands and refuses entry into contemporality, and says she wants to allow African artists to be a multiplicity of things. A book, Volta Colour, published by GOST and priced £45, accompanies the exhibition.