One of Africa's foremost portrait photographers, Malick Sidibé began his career as a party and event photographer in Bamako, Mali. From 1962 to 1973, he photographed weddings, baptisms, birthdays, and impromptu parties organized by local youth clubs. Afterward, he would mount and number his snapshots on colored sheets of card stock so that partygoers could view the photos and order prints. Overlooked in his studio for years, a selection of these scrapbook-like sample images, which joyously capture the optimism of postcolonial Mali, was recently readied for exhibition and compiled into a book, published by Steidl. At Foam, the photo sheets are displayed alongside Sidibé's iconic '70s studio portraits of hipsters, couples, families, and friends — all dressed to the nines and putting their best faces forward.

-Paul Laster