The self-trained Keita opened a studio in Bamako, Mali, in 1948 and produced thousands of negatives of the Bamakoise. The photos included here were private commissions made by, and for, Africans, to be printed on an intimate scale and circulated among family and friends. The photographs typically represent how the subjects desired to be represented, and these works are often interpreted as illustrating the assurance of an African nation in its transition to independence.