BE THERE
Class PicturesPresented by Aperture Gallery January 10, 2008- February 28, 2008Reception: January 10, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pmDawoud BeyCLASS PICTURES PHOTOGRAPHS BY DAWOUD BEY Opening Reception: Thursday, January 10, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Exhibition on View: Friday, January 11–Thursday, February 28, 2008 "I think what has been driving and directing my work for a long time is this idea that through making pictures of young people I can affect viewers in such a way that they too can become invested in these subjects.” —Dawoud Bey Dawoud Bey’s teenage subjects defy stereotypes of American youth during this complicated age. For Class Pictures, Bey photographed young people from all parts of the economic, racial, and ethnic spectrum in both public and private high schools in Detroit; Lawrence and Andover, Massachusetts; Orlando; San Francisco; and New York City. Bey spent three to four weeks in each school, taking formal portraits of individual students, each made in a classroom or other school setting during one forty-five-minute period. The resulting portraits—forty-by-thirty-inch color prints—are arresting both compositionally and psychologically. At the start of the sitting, each subject writes a brief autobiographical statement. By turns poignant, funny, or harrowing, invariably deepening our appreciation for young adults facing the challenges of the twenty-first century, these revealing words are an integral part of the project. Together, the words and images in Class Pictures offer unusually respectful and perceptive portraits that establish Dawoud Bey as one of the best portraitists at work today. Dawoud Bey (born 1953, New York) earned his MFA from Yale University School of Art and is professor of photography at Columbia College Chicago. He has been featured in numerous exhibitions—including a mid-career survey at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, in 1995—and has received several awards, including grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is represented by Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago and Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston. The photographs in the accompanying exhibition are chromogenic prints made by Duggal, New York. Class Pictures was organized by Aperture Foundation. This project was made possible, in part, with generous support from Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro. Additional support was provided by Sandra and Jack Guthman, Scott and Willa Lang, Susan and Lewis Manilow, and Madeline Murphy Rabb.
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