Malick Sidibé
The Hasselblad award was presented for the 23rd time on Saturday 25 October 2003. The award winner, Malick Sidibé, Bamako, Mali, received the award from Her Royal Highness Princess Lilian, at a ceremony at the Göteborg City Theatre. The award sum was SEK 500,000. In conjunction with the ceremony an exhibit of the award winner’s work, Malick Sidibé – 2003 Hasselblad award winner, opened at the Hasselblad Center at the Göteborg Art Museum.
The Foundation’s citation:
Malick Sidibé has documented an important period of West African history with great feeling, enthusiasm and commitment. In his portraits and documentary photography, he has uniquely captured the atmosphere and vitality of an African capital in a period of great effervescence. From the very beginnings of the postcolonial period, he has been a privileged witness to a period of tremendous, euphoric cultural change. As a young but already well-reputed photographer, Malick Sidibé captured a time of paradigm shift and youthful insouciance, curiosity about the rest of the world, pride, and confidence in the future. The work of Malick Sidibé, largely devoted to Malian youth in the 1950s and 60s, is a unique memoir and testimony. These photographs, originally intended for an African audience, are now available for the admiration of all.
