Object Details
- Photographer
- Shamir, Marli
- Place
- Djenné (Mali)
- Mali
- Ivory Coast
- Burkina Faso
- Timbuktu (Mali)
- Mali, -- Bamako
- Niger
- Mopti (Mali)
- Israel
- Topic
- Slides (Photography)
- Provenance
- Purchased, 2013
- Photographer
- Shamir, Marli
- Culture
- San (African people)
- Dogon (African people)
- Fulani
- See more items in
- Marli Shamir collection
- Summary
- Collection dates from 1966 to 1976 and includes 1,817 black and white negatives, 1,519 35mm color slides, several hundred prints, and manuscript materials. Locations include Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Israel, Mali, and Niger and depict agriculture, architecture, especially mosques, landscapes, marketplaces, masquerade and musical performances, sculptures, and textiles. Peoples depicted include the Bambara, Bella, Bozo, Dogon, Fulani, Gao, Mandingo, San, Songhai, and Tuarag peoples.
- Biographical / Historical
- Marli Shamir (1919-2016) was an Israeli photographer known for her extensive work in Mali, the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso from 1966-1973. Born and raised in Berlin, Shamir started studying photography during her teenage years and took photography classes at the Contempora Lehrateliers für neue Werkkunst (1934-1937). In 1938, she was forced to immigrate to Israel where she initially lived in a kibbutz. From 1941-1943, she worked at the mineralogy department of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, and then opened her own studio in Jerusalem in 1945. In 1953, she married Meir Shamir, a former Israeli Diplomat-Ambassador, and from 1966-1973 she lived successively in Mali, Gabon and Cote d'Ivoire. She held a particular fascination with architecture, monuments, mosques, arts and habitants. During her stay in Mali, she met Pascal James Imperato with whom she wrote the article "Bokolanfini Mud Cloth of the Bamana of Mali" (African Arts, 1970). In 1976, she produced the exhibition Sahel at the Israeli museum in Jerusalem, which focused on the rural and urban architecture and people of the Sahel. The exhibition toured in Europe later that year. From 1977-1981, she lived in Strasbourg, where she focused on documenting the new style of architecture in Mali. Her work on this project is stored at the Center of Documentation in Strasbourg. In 2005, a book devoted to her photographs from Mali was published by the Grandvaux French Edition House. The National Poet of Mali, Albakaye Ousmane Kounta, collaborated with Shamir on a book of poetry, Djenney-Ferey –La terre habitee (published by Grandaux, 2007), which is illustrated with Shamir's photographs. Shamir passed away in 2016 at the age of 93.
- Extent
- 33 Negatives (photographic) (color, 35mm)
- 1790 Negatives (photographic) (black and white, medium format film)
- 1,519 Color slides (35mm)
- Date
- 1966-1976
- Archival Repository
- Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
- Identifier
- EEPA.2013-009
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Negatives (photographic)
- Color slides
- Photographic print
- Citation
- Marli Shamir collection, EEPA 2013-009, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
- Arrangement
- Arranged in four series, according to format. Series 1: Negatives Series 2: Slides Series 3: Photographic Prints Series 4: Manuscript Materials
- Processing Information
- Metadata compiled by Hannah Storch. Negatives and slides were digitized in 2019. Series 3 and 4 are currently being processed and are not available online.
- Rights
- Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
- Genre/Form
- Negatives (photographic)
- Photographic print
- Scope and Contents
- This collection dates from 1966 to 1976 and includes 1,817 black and white negatives, 1,519 35mm color slides, several hundred prints, and manuscript materials. Images were taken in Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Gabon, Israel, Mali, and Niger and depict agriculture, architecture, especially mosques, landscapes, marketplaces, masquerade and musical performances, sculptures, textiles. Peoples depicted include the Bambara, Bella, Bozo, Dogon, Fulani, Gao, Mandingo, San, Songhai, and Tuarag peoples.
- Restrictions
- Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
- Record ID
- ebl-1539289895541-1539289895543-0
In the Collection
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