Sanlé Sory (born 1943) is a Burkinabe photographer.
As a teenager, he photographed automobile accidents around Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkino-Faso, which he would race to document on his motorcycle.[1] In 1960 he founded the Volta Photo Studio in Bobo-Dioulasso.[2] [3] Following this he developed a reputation as a photographer of the Burkinabe club scene in the 1960s and 70s.[2] During this time he also organized bals poussières, or "dust balls", where he would provide a sound system and musicians for concerts stages in the countryside. Sory would roam the bals with his camera, taking photos for money.[4]
In 2018 the Art Institute of Chicago presented the exhibition Volta Photo: Starring Sanlé Sory and the People of Bobo-Dioulasso in the Small but Musically Mighty Country of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso).[5] Steidl published an accompanying catalogue, titled Volta Photo.[6] In 2021 the fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner released a line of clothing titled Volta Jazz and inspired by Sory's photographs. The line included a film by the same name, created by Joshua Woods.[7] [8]
Sory's work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston[9] the Museum of Modern Art, New York[10] and the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College.[11]