These unseen colour portraits by Sanlé Sory have been hidden for decades – now’s your chance to see them in all their glory

Known for his celebrated black-and-white studio portraits, Sanlé Sory now steps into the spotlight with Colour Years, an exhibition of rarely seen colour photographs that reveal another side to one of Africa’s greatest post-independence photographers.

In 1960, just after Upper Volta gained independence from France, photographer Sanlé Sory (b. 1943) opened Volta Photo Studio in Bobo-Dioulasso, the second-largest city located in the southwestern part of what is now Burkina Faso. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of people passed through the studio doors eager to record weddings, friendships, new fashions or simply the person they had become.

Over time, those black-and-white studio portraits and exuberant photographs of Burkina Faso’s nightlife have gradually established Sory as one of Africa’s great post-independence photographers helped by the publication of books: Volta Photo (2018), Peuple de la Nuit (2019), and Studio Volta Photo (2018). A comprehensive new monograph is scheduled by Phaidon in October 2026.

A splash of colour

This autumn, the Photographers’ Gallery London is set to reveal another side to his legacy. Colour Years brings together a rarely seen selection from Sory’s colour archive. While his monochrome images earned global acclaim, his body of colour work lurked in the shadows. This fresh appraisal expands on the work for which he is best known. Colour became another tool for documenting a nation embracing change without abandoning tradition.

After Sory sat for his own identity portrait, he knew he wanted to be the other side of the lens. His love of photography led to a three year apprenticeship with a Ghanaian photographer, before going on to establish Volta Photo. The studio was modest but quickly became a go-to cultural landmark attracting customers from all levels of society.

Customers went there to perform as much as pose for a portrait. Recognising this, Sory commissioned painted backdrops of Roman columns and city scenes and perhaps most famously, an aeroplane that allowed journeys to be imagined that the average Burkinabè couldn’t afford. Portraits could be embellished with Sory’s accumulated props – Air Afrique flight bags, suits and ties, radios, telephones, record players, lamps and even plastic guns. Long before Instagram filters and AI, what Sory offered was the chance for every sitter to leave feeling happier, smarter or more glamorous than when they entered.

Texture and style

In the evenings, Sory would load black and white film into his Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera and a Yashica-Mat and head off to the bals poussières (dust-ball dances) to capture the vibrant and energetic youth culture that flourished there. Colour photography was reserved for specialist commissions and by contrast, have remained largely overlooked. What this exhibition argues is that these colour pictures deserve equal attention. That they have the same democratic spirit that defined Volta Photo. Shot on 35mm colour film using Olympus and Konica cameras, Sory placed greater emphasis on capturing clothing, textiles and personal style.

Each portrait is a collaboration, poses weren’t dictated. Visitors were encouraged to bring along meaningful possessions or mix and match with studio props. Customers are encouraged to imagine themselves somewhere between local tradition and an increasingly connected modern world. In one portrait a man sits on a motor bike. In another, a man holds a phone to his ear. Shoes are polished, clothes are richly patterned or embroidered. The portraits become statements of identity. They are far from straight anthropological documents but a shared experience that collectively builds a picture of how a community is wished to be seen. They are aspirational without feeling overly staged. This collaborative approach perhaps explains why his photographs feel so contemporary.

Saved from the fire

The realisation that much of Sory’s archive might never have survived adds a layer of appreciation to the exhibition. When French writer and record producer Florent Mazzoleni visited Sory while researching West African music in 2011, he found the photographer burning old negatives. Sory was convinced people didn’t care about the old stuff. Mazzoleni convinced him otherwise and spent all night looking at photos under a flashlight. A relationship of cataloguing and printing tens of thousands of images began. Mazzoleni’s intervention eventually led to acclaimed exhibitions in Chicago, London and elsewhere, alongside the publication of the monograph Volta Photo.

Half a century on

Colour Years, rather than simply revisiting familiar favourites, extends the assessment of Sory’s practice, broadening our understanding of one of Africa’s most significant studio photographers. These colour photographs capture the optimism of those who paid to sit for Sory. His celebrated black and white photographs captured the energy of a newly independent Burkina Faso but the colour images show the fabrics people chose, the textures and colours they embraced.

More than 50 years on from when the shutter was released, these colour portraits remain vivid reminders that photography has always been about more than recording appearances. In Sory’s hands, a portrait became an act of self-invention and colour gave those ambitions an entirely new dimension.

Sanlé Sory: Colour Years – Autumn Season 2026/2027 14 October 2026 – 21 February 2027 – The Photographers’ Gallery UK

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