A documentary film on the life and work of Senegalese photographer Mama Casset.
Mama Casset (Saint Louis 1908 – Dakar 1992) is considered one of the forefathers of Senegalese photography. He belongs to the generation of West Africans artists who, during the Fifties, gave birth to the great season of studio portrait photography.

In 1943 he opens his studio “African Photo” in the Dakar’s Medina. Soon the studio becomes one of the most famous and fashionable in the city. His portraits are true works of art, which stand out for their elegance and sophistication, and attract a wide clientele from the lower and middle classes, as well as many religious and political leaders. Interpreter of his own time, Mama Casset in his art portrays the society of that era, the fashion, the hairdressing style and the pulse of life in Dakar during the Fifties and Sixties.

The story of one of the first Senegalese photographers thus intersects with the unfolding of the great political, social, and cultural transformations which led in 1960 to Senegal’s independence.