Recipient of a 2017 MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," Dawoud Bey has created a body of photography that masterfully portrays the contemporary American experience on its own terms and in all of its diversity. 'Dawoud Bey: Seeing Deeply' offers a forty-year retrospective of the celebrated photographer's work, from his early street photography in Harlem to his current images of Harlem gentrification. Photographs from all of Bey's major projects are presented in chronological sequence, allowing viewers to see how the collective body of portraits and recent landscapes create an unparalleled historical representation of various communities in the United States. Leading curators and critics-Sarah Lewis, Deborah Willis, David Travis, Hilton Als, Jacqueline Terrassa, Rebecca Walker, Maurice Berger, and Leigh Raiford-introduce each series of images. Revealing Bey as the natural heir of such renowned photographers as Roy DeCarava, Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, and James Van Der Zee, Dawoud Bey: Seeing Deeply demonstrates how one man's search for community can produce a stunning portrait of our common humanity.
Introduction : the art of negotiation by Sarah Lewis -- Harlem, U.S.A. : framing Harlem by Deborah Willis -- Small camera work : the daily miracle by David Travis -- Black and white type 55 polaroid street portraits : story based on Dawoud Bey's "young man at a tent revival" by Hilton Als -- 20x24 polaroid works : from the streets into the studio by Dawoud Bey -- Class pictures : what is the "work"? by Jacqueline Terrassa -- Character project -- Strangers/community : for now by Rebecca Walker -- Birmingham project : a remembrance of lives lost by Maurice Berger -- Harlem Redux by Leigh Raiford.
Photography--Social aspects--United States--History