Marli Shamir collection
name: label: Photographer
content: Shamir, Marli
place: label: Place
content: Djenné (Mali)
label: Place
content: Mali
label: Place
content: Ivory Coast
label: Place
content: Burkina Faso
label: Place
content: Timbuktu (Mali)
label: Place
content: Mali, -- Bamako
label: Place
content: Niger
label: Place
content: Mopti (Mali)
label: Place
content: Israel
topic: label: Topic
content: Slides (Photography)
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Purchased, 2013
creator: label: Photographer
content: Shamir, Marli
culture: label: Culture
content: San (African people)
label: Culture
content: Dogon (African people)
label: Culture
content: Fulani
setName: label: See more items in
content: Marli Shamir collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: 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.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Marli Shamir (1919-2016) was an Israeli photographer known for her extensive work in Mali, the Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso from 1966-1973.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.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 33 Negatives (photographic) (color, 35mm)
label: Extent
content: 1790 Negatives (photographic) (black and white, medium format film)
label: Extent
content: 1,519 Color slides (35mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1966-1976
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: EEPA.2013-009
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Negatives (photographic)
label: Type
content: Color slides
label: Type
content: Photographic print
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Arranged in four series, according to format.

Series 1: Negatives

Series 2: Slides

Series 3: Photographic Prints

Series 4: Manuscript Materials
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: 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.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Negatives (photographic)
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographic print
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: 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.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: The Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives also holds another collection of Shamir's photographs, EEPA 1995-025.