‘Europeans who visit Bamako for the first time are often struck by scenes of poverty and difference,’ explains Sophie Mew, curator of the photographic and film exhibition Bamako–London: collaborative exhibition of exchanges. Indeed, it is often mentioned that England and Mali stand on opposite ends of the development rankings, with Mali being the fifth poorest country in the world while the UK is the fifth most developed. In reality, however, this ‘poverty is relative’, in the words of the Head of the Malian Community Council in London, Wilfred Abdoul Willey, who made a speech at the exhibition's opening. In a world where it is increasingly debated whether economic measures of development suffice in explaining social and cultural differences, exhibitions such as Bamako–London play an important role in discussing the multi-layered identity of a society.

The exhibition explores seemingly shared experiences between residents of the two capitals. The display consists of a collection of photographs taken within the same time period – half of them in Bamako by the Malian photographer Alioune Bâ, the other half in London by photographer Diane Patrice. Four main themes of everyday encounters in the two capitals are depicted: transport, recreation, family life and the production of music. These themes are evoked through images of tea drinking, experiences of taxi drivers, family meals, playing instruments, and football. In the curatorial narrative of the exhibition, time and space are convincingly fused. Images of Bamako and London are arranged side by side or on opposite sides of hanging panels. As visitors explore an image of one city, they are stirred to search for its sister image nearby and discover the parallel reality that the other city has to offer. Accompanying some of the photographs are brief transcriptions of dialogues that the photographers held with their subjects. They recollect memorable anecdotes, exchange pleasantries and mention specific places. Through these ‘photo stories’, the depicted individuals gain a voice of their own; the viewer learns of the London female taxi driver's most memorable experience, of the importance of producing music to a young Malian, and of the maintenance of friendship between two elderly ladies through drinking a cup of tea – to mention just a few of these stories. The photographs without dialogues invite the viewer to engage imaginatively with the representation and think of the experiences which could lie behind the image. The uncaptioned photographs push the viewer to decipher which is the depicted city and which are the similarities in question. In doing so, the two cities are not presented as an amalgam of facts but as real places embellished with real experiences, requiring a cognitive and emotional engagement on the part of the viewer. The exhibition does not limit itself to the medium of photography alone. In the background is film footage of scenes from the cities, recording moments such as football games and providing an encounter with living masses as a context for the photographs.

The drawing power of this exhibition is its focus on the daily, the ordinary, the dilemmas and small pleasures of both places. Through this combination of visual and verbal narrative, it successfully suggests the importance of the human experience in any situation where ‘our’ reality must be compared to ‘another's’ and recalls the emphasis laid by scholars such as Edward Said on the need to study human experience in order to avoid distorting the image of the Other. Thus within these seemingly commonplace activities the exhibition also questions the deeper nature of cross-cultural understanding. While no language or practice is universal, the need for work, the desire for companionship, the tendency towards regularity, and the passion for sport and the arts are found across borders. Diane Patrice expressed the need to acknowledge these exchanges and similarities thus: ‘We're all essentially after the same things in life’ – a remark that encapsulates the exhibition's main theme. However, the images themselves provide a plethora of other issues beyond similarity. The most prominent is perhaps that while we may all want the same things in life, we attain them through means which vary according to social, cultural, economic and personal differences. For example, the London cab driver is a woman, a very conscious choice of subject which leads down a trail of debates about the position of women working in stereotypically male jobs in London. Signs of such regional differences are self-evident in the photographs and they provide a wealth of material to be debated further. What is the importance of acknowledging these differences? How much ‘difference’ are we willing to accommodate while still classifying something as similar? These questions are an undercurrent to the exhibition, and it would be an interesting development to see them tackled as well.