Contribution short abstract:

The Bissa people in Burkina Faso received the pictures that I sent them recently. A thousand photographs (1982-1996). Rediscovering these pictures took me back to my years as a student in Paris in the 80’s and 90’s. At that time I was under the influence of Jean Rouch as a visual anthropologist.

Contribution long abstract:

I lived among the Bissa people of Burkina Faso for several years between 1982 and 1996. I published articles and anthropological books about this region. I recently rediscovered my collection of black and white negatives, I digitalized a thousand of these photographs. My friends in the Bissa villages identified all the people in the photographs, and gave me their names. I produced several albums that they received.

Using the albums, the villagers emailed me notes outlining the differences comparing the photographs then and today.

On my side, these pictures took me back to my years as a student in Paris in the 80’s and 90’s. At that time, I was a student of Jean Rouch for visual anthropology. I also followed the seminars of Michel Izard, my thesis director, and many other anthropologists gave me advice, like Françoise Heritier and Maurice Godelier. I also owe a lot to Dan Sperber for my post-doctorate in cognitive sciences with the Fyssen Foundation. My research was about the sacred lake of the Bissa’s, before it was drowned by the Bagre dam.

In conclusion, this photographic retrospective with the Bissa group in Burkina Faso is inspired by years of visual anthropology, and by the academic anthropology in France at that time.