Saïdou Dicko is a self-taught multimedia visual artist from Burkina Faso who engages in photography, videography, installation, and paintings. Coming from a background of a Fulani shepherd, he began his artistic pursuit from drawing shadows of his sheep. Later on in his career, those shadows became his focus and present in all of his work. Originally having photography as his focal point, in the recent years, he has expanded his approach to his creations and began to combine different media, where photography is incorporated with, for instance, paintings and digital collage.
Saïdou Dicko’s most recent series has been published in the photo book, “The Shadowed People”. The series is a combination of clichés, subverted, where he covers the subject with black paint. Being a reflection of his years of work, “The Shadowed People” aims to anonimise the subjects and subsequently break down the concept of the individual, democratizing his characters by removing key societal indicators. At the same time, his art also gives a spotlight to his background not only through the black-inked figures, but also the four red squares grouped around a black one in the centre above the head of the subject in each photo. The formation represents the most prominent symbols connected to his Fulani origins, with the symbol being part of a typical traditional Fulani wall carpet. Poetic and poignant, Saïdou Dicko’s work aims to portray the shadow of stereotypes in which people of African backgrounds are living and the universality of their experiences.