Rashid Mahdi

• Name — Rashid Mahdi • Born — 1923 • Died — 2008 • Birthplace — Atbara Sudan • Known for — documentary and portrait photography

• Illustration — "Man with scarifications", by Rashid Mahdi • Illustration — Portrait of an unknown man, by Rashid Mahdi, 1960 Initially, Mahdi was trained in woodworking at the technical college in Omdurman and was destined to work for the colonial Sudanese railways. He worked as a carpenter for some time, but photography attracted him more. Upon graduation, he bought his first camera from a Greek photographer and taught himself in his new activity. In order to improve his skills, he corresponded with Kodak in London and in 1957 was invited to visit Kodak representation in Cairo, Egypt. Working as studio photographer from the 1950s to the 1970s in his home town of Atbara, Mahdi was one of the early Sudanese photographers. In 1957, he opened Rashid Photo Studio and produced mostly portraits of individuals or groups such as families, soldiers or members of religious groups. Over time, these images became historical documents, representing personal appearance and fashion of the day. Further, Mahdi documented local industry, politics and movements in Atbara, the centre of the Sudanese railway network, its movement of trade unions and of the activities of the Sudanese communist party. Using a 18 x stand camera, Mahdi worked in black-and-white, but also hand-coloured some of his prints, sometimes using large formats. For the premiere of the first feature film in independent Sudan, Hopes & Dreams in the outdoor National Theatre Omdurman in 1970, directed by Ibrahim Mallassy and with Mahdi as director of photography, he documented the large number of spectators in one of his photographs. After Rashid Mahdi's retirement, his son Amin El Rashid (born 1945), took over the studio until the mid-1990s. With its collection of photographs from the 1940s onwards, Rashid Studio became the largest photographic archive of the country, totalling more than four million negatives. A large number of these have been published online by the documentary project Sudan Memory.

• "Photographie Soudanaise", Usine Springcourt / Paris / France / 2012 • "The gifted man", Cultural Centre of Egypt / Paris / France / 2011 • "Lumières soudanaises", Rencontres photographiques du 10ème / Paris / France / 2011 • "Photographies Soudanaises", Galerie Clémentine de la Ferronnière / Paris / France /2011 • "Lumières Soudanaises", Flatteurville / Paris / France 2011 • "Nouvelles Africaines" / Africultures / Confluences, Paris / France / 2007 • "Rencontres Photographiques", Fez / Morocco / 2006 • "Another World", La Centrale Electrique / Brussels / Belgium / 2006 • "Sixth African Photography Encounters", Bamako / Mali / 2005