Dawoud Bey
Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami, West Virginia, Miami, 06/07/2013 - 09/08/2013
ABOUT
The Museum of Contemporary Art will present Dawoud Bey: Picturing People, an expansive career survey of the Chicago-based photographer which ranges from street encounters to formal studio portraits. Dawoud Bey is distinguished for his commitment to portraiture as a means for understanding contemporary society, first gaining notoriety as a photographer for his acclaimed series Harlem U.S.A., exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem in 1979. The 50 images in Picturing People, organized by The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, represent the evolution of Bey’s work in the three decades since, during which time he continued his portraiture of primarily African-American subjects.
Over the years, Bey continues to investigate numerous photographic methods to increase his engagement with his subjects, switching from black and white to color, shifting between street photography and studio work, and now working with large-format cameras. His earliest small camera pictures demonstrate a spontaneous orchestration and choreography of human interactions within a specific location, and the fleeting social tensions embedded in them. Bey’s street portraits explore moments of consensual collaboration between the artist and the subjects.
With his Polaroid photographs, Bey began his introduction of young people as a central subject. Bey’s most recent series is Strangers/Community, consisting of large-format photographs of two individuals that, although members of the same socio-geographic community, are unknown to one another. Casually positioned side-by-side, between them are differences in age, race, comportment, gender, etc. – differences which call into question the terms on which community is defined.
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The Museum of Contemporary Art will present Dawoud Bey: Picturing People, an expansive career survey of the Chicago-based photographer which ranges from street encounters to formal studio portraits. Dawoud Bey is distinguished for his commitment to portraiture as a means for understanding contemporary society, first gaining notoriety as a photographer for his acclaimed series Harlem U.S.A., exhibited at The Studio Museum in Harlem in 1979. The 50 images in Picturing People, organized by The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, represent the evolution of Bey’s work in the three decades since, during which time he continued his portraiture of primarily African-American subjects.
Over the years, Bey continues to investigate numerous photographic methods to increase his engagement with his subjects, switching from black and white to color, shifting between street photography and studio work, and now working with large-format cameras. His earliest small camera pictures demonstrate a spontaneous orchestration and choreography of human interactions within a specific location, and the fleeting social tensions embedded in them. Bey’s street portraits explore moments of consensual collaboration between the artist and the subjects.
With his Polaroid photographs, Bey began his introduction of young people as a central subject. Bey’s most recent series is Strangers/Community, consisting of large-format photographs of two individuals that, although members of the same socio-geographic community, are unknown to one another. Casually positioned side-by-side, between them are differences in age, race, comportment, gender, etc. – differences which call into question the terms on which community is defined.
For More Information