Lyndsay Tipton
Eng 400
Observation: There are four young men that appear to be teenaged. They are each dressed in western clothing that was considered stylish for the time period. Three of the four boys are wearing sunglasses; therefore the viewer cannot see their eyes. None of them are smiling. There expressions appear stoic or serious. Several of the articles of clothing have a print or pattern, such as stripes. The back drop is also striped, going in a different direction. Each of them is striking a pose, positioning themselves in specific ways.
Inference: One of the reasons that I decided to choose this photograph was that I feel like it embodies the idea that Sidibe was trying to reflect the rebellion found in Bamako's youth. These are all young boys that posed in a way that makes them appear disobedient or mutinous. The boys are all dressed in western style clothing which could either feed into this idea of a rebellious youth or it could simply be because Sidibe liked to capture many of his subjects dressed that way. At one point in the article that we read for class, it is stated that Sidibe's "...image[s] seem to reflect a combination of self-consciousness and pride of presentation in the subjects". I feel like this idea can easily be applied to this particular photograph because of the way that the boys are dressed and positioned. While they do appear to be proud, their choice of style or pose could also be read as them trying to get past some sort of self-consciousness about their non-western culture.
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