Thiaroye: A Place of Arrival and a Land of Emigration, 2008

Boubacar Touré Mandémory is a tireless seeker of images, an urban forager constantly on the hunt for fleeting glimpses of everyday life. His works form a lexicon of stolen moments as intimate as they are strange; his approach is that of a poet rather than an ethnographer. Off-kilter angles evoke the warped opticality of dream life, often underscored by a darkened palette that lends the scenes a distinct sense of liminality.

In the series *Villes Capitales d’Afrique* (Capitals of Africa) (c. 2000–05), Mandémory presents images of his childhood—the collection of streets and neighborhoods etched in his mind’s eye. Mandémory consciously positions his practice in opposition to documentary photography, in which he discerns the specter of colonial ethnography and its oppressive fictions.