Dawoud Bey

Dawoud Bey’s work is held by major collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Portrait Gallery, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In addition to the MacArthur fellowship, Bey’s honors include the United States Artists Guthman Fellowship, 2015; the Guggenheim Fellowship in Photography, 2002; and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1991. He is Professor of Art and a former Distinguished College Artist at Columbia College Chicago.

[Bey's] photography is inseparable from his audience and would be diminished without their approval and loyalty. If we hear the rhetoric of protest echoing in the nine chapters of this glorious book, it's against those who would underestimate the control, skill, resilience and shared humanity necessary for someone to make art with a camera of the quality we're holding. (Collector Daily) [Bey's] 'The Birmingham Project' is at D.C.'s National Gallery of Art, but if you can't make it, this imperial-size book is a fine alternative. (New York Magazine) Seeing Deeply reveals [Bey's] decades-long exploration of community, memory, and photography...Ultimately, [Bey's] work is an ongoing exploration of photography's possibilities, informed by his research and cultural influences. (New York Times) Producing contemporary photography is a delicate negotiation between aesthetic intuition and questions of autonomy. The medium is a chess game of vision and ethics-a game Dawoud Bey seems to have mastered…Through his every interaction with individual subjects and broader communities, the images he constructs are uniquely attentive to the weight of specificity. They tell stories, but not ones concerned with tidiness. Their power lies in narrative left lingering-thoughts of what remains outside the frame. (Flood Magazine) [Bey's] elevation of the every day to the extraordinary is in the tradition of Gordon Parks and Roy DeCarava, but the legacy is all his own. (The Root) A mammoth retrospective volume, [Dawoud Bey] makes clear that a genius vision has coursed through [Bey's] work for more than 40 years. (Culture Type) [A]n unparalleled historical representation of various communities in the United States. Prodigious is an apt descriptor for Seeing Deeply. (F-Stop Magazine) This retrospective is…a magnificent testament to what can be shown about people's pride and hope, and in an exemplary yet subtle manner seems to posit the idea that all us individuals, no matter what our background and heritage may be, are interested in building a better future and would benefit from collaboration. This photobook is destined to become a classic! (The PhotoBook Journal) [A] lavish retrospective. (The Chicago Tribune) A] testament not only to Bey's long career as a working photographer but to an artist who is relentlessly exploring, reworking, and rethinking his method and medium. (American Suburb X) [A] voluminous monograph with all the luxurious detail of a Phaidon-style tome and all the scholarly heft of a catalogue raisonnÉ. (Newcity Art) Through Bey's lens, his subjects receive a level of respect and a glimpse into their shared humanity that is nothing short of marvelous. (Zócalo Public Square) A beautiful retrospective of [Bey's] work. (PBS NewsHour) An essential monograph...An artist whose craft draws forth the nuances of human expression, Bey shares as much about his subjects as he does about himself in this intimate and important book. (Contemporary And) This magnificent effusion of photographs and commentary is more than a riveting artistic and social experience; it is also a stunning exhibition of the human spirit. (The Virginian-Pilot) Bey’s portraits prompt talk of souls; these are pictures that stare back. The gazes Bey captures on film simulate the experience of encounter...This is the drama of Bey’s work, the relationship between picture and viewer, who is held by the image such that she cannot merely be a passerby but is confronted, rather, with questions of the soul. (Religious Studies Review)

• Introduction. The Art of Negotiation by Sarah LewisHarlem, U.S.A. Framing Harlem by Deborah WillisSmall Camera Work. The Daily Miracle by David TravisBlack-and-White Type 55 Polaroid Street Portraits. Young Man at a Tent Revival by Hilton Als20 × 24 Polaroid Works. From the Streets into the Studio by Dawoud BeyClass Pictures. What Is the “Work”? by Jacqueline TerrassaCharacter ProjectStrangers/Community. For Now. by Rebecca WalkerThe Birmingham Project. A Remembrance of Lives Lost by Maurice BergerHarlem Redux. Harlem Redux by Leigh RaifordChronologyPlatesAcknowledgments