Mali's pioneering photographer Malick Sidibe dies

Malick Sidibe started taking private pictures for clients in 1957

Tributes are being paid to the award-winning Malian photographer, Malick Sidibe, who has died at the age of 80.

Sidibe, who died on Thursday, is known for his black and white studio portraits that captured the lives of young Malians in the 1960s and 1970s.

Critics say his photos of Mali's post-colonial period helped people see the West African nation in a new light.

In 2007, he became the first African winner of the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Biennale.

People on Twitter describe him as a talent whose images of popular and youth culture still resonate among young photographers across Africa.

Sidibe's work captures the lives of young men and women, often showing off a prized possession like a watch or a motorbike.

Friends of the Spanish - 1968

All the Family on a Motorbike - 1962

He also captures street scenes and young men seducing girls at parties with a sense of newfound freedom and identity.

Look At Me! - 1972

Sidibe has work in several private and public museums around the world.

Friends Battle with Stones - 1976

He became famous around the world after holding his first exhibition in France in 1996

Picnic by the River Bank 1972

Andres Magnin, Malick Sidibe's close friend and owner of the Parisian gallery which represented him, called the photographer an author "of thousands of images of tenderness and beauty".

"A photographer of the young generation of an independent Mali, untroubled, free, modern, full of joy and hope... He was generous, welcoming, loved by all the young people in Bamako."

Young Peul Herdsmen - 1972

Just Me - 1974