Bassirou Sanni (1937-2000) El Hadj Bassirou Sanni was born in Nigeria. From 1960 to 1962, he received extensive training from a master photographer in Lagos, the capital of Nigeria. There he worked with a large format plate camera and learned the difficult art of retouching with a sharp pencil directly on the negative. In 1962, Bassirou Sanni settled in Mopti, in northern Mali. From his country of origin, he brought back a beautiful Japanese mahogany camera for film and glass plates. It was with this equipment that he began his career. Later, his younger brother Latifou also settled in Mopti, where he learned photography. When Svend Erik Sokkelund visited the studio in 1996, Bassirou said people came to have their photos taken with a radio, a bicycle or a moped, status symbols in Malian society at the time.