For more than four decades, Dawoud Bey has used photography to amplify the visibility of Black life in America. Born in Queens, New York, Bey first gained recognition in the late 1970s for his series Harlem, U.S.A., exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1979. That project, which portrayed the everyday grace of Harlem residents, set the tone for a career rooted in community engagement, collaboration, and a deep commitment to representation.

Bey’s practice bridges documentary realism and conceptual portraiture. The photograph shown here, depicting a group of young people sitting on the steps of a house, embodies his signature balance of intimacy and formality. The subjects, rendered in natural light and arranged in quiet stillness, look directly toward or just beyond the viewer, revealing layers of individuality and collective experience. Through composition, body language, and gaze, Bey captures a sense of shared belonging and unspoken narrative. His portraits are less about spectacle than presence; they invite viewers to truly see their subjects.

Over the years, Bey’s projects have expanded the scope of photographic storytelling. Series such as Class Pictures (2002–06) and Harlem Redux (2014–17) explore intergenerational identity and the changing urban landscape, while The Birmingham Project (2012) and Night Coming Tenderly, Black (2017) engage historical memory and the African American struggle for freedom.

A longtime educator, Bey has taught at institutions including Columbia College Chicago, where he has profoundly influenced a new generation of photographers. His work has been the subject of major retrospectives, including Dawoud Bey: An American Project (Whitney Museum of American Art and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2020–21).

Selected Exhibitions

Harlem, U.S.A., The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY, 1979 and 2010-2011

DAWOUD BEY: Portraits 1975-1995, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, 1995

Class Pictures, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY, 2007; traveling exhibition

The Birmingham Project, Birmingham Museum of Art, AL, 2013

Night Coming Tenderly, Black, Art Institute of Chicago, IL, 2018

Dawoud Bey: An American Project, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA, 2020–21

Selected Collections

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Art Institute of Chicago, IL

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA