Fatoumata Diabaté
Fatoumata Diabaté, (born 19 September 1980) is a Malian photographer from Bamako. Education. In 2002, after spending nine months at the Centre de Formation Audiovisuel Promo-Femmes training center in Bamako, Diabaté continued her studies at the Centre de Formation en Photographie de Bamako (CFP), which aims to professionalize Malian photographers. She was given a two-week internship there. Later, she was spotted for her motivation and talent, then retained and trained for two more years. Diabaté then completed her training in Switzerland at the Vevey Professional Education Center and returned to the CFP in Bamako, where she  was a technical assistant from 2007 to 2009. She also served an internship at the Central DUPON's professional printing laboratory in Paris. Her studies gave her the opportunity to improve her skills in black-and-white silver gelatin photography and to participate in many workshops in Mali, as well as abroad. She credits Malian photographer Seydou Keïta, who was a neighbor of hers when she was growing up, as a creative inspiration. Diabaté has also paid homage to Malick Sidibé, Samuel Fosso, and Oumar Ly, all masters of African studio photography. Career. Diabaté has participated in several group and  individual exhibitions and has earned a number of awards, notably the Prix Afrique, given by the "Association française d'action artistique" following the 2005 Rencontres africaines de la photographie biennial, Bamako, where she took the Afrique en Créations prize for her work "Touaregs, en gestes et en mouvements". Her camera of choice is an old-fashioned view camera, which she has used inside a portable studio/installation in her project "Studio Photo de la Rue", to create staged scenes for her subjects, also a nod to the work of the masters of African studio photography noted above. She works in analog  photographic processes, both black and white and color. Diabaté has also photographed on commission for World Press Photo, Oxfam, Rolex, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.