Dawoud Bey on Photographing People and Communities

The Photography Workshop Series

by Dawoud Bey, Brian Ulrich (Contributor)

In the fifth installment of The Photography Workshop Series, Dawoud Bey―well known for striking portraits that reflect both the individual and their larger community―offers his insight on creating meaningful and beautiful portraits that capture the subject and speak to something more universal.

Through images and words, Bey shares his own creative process and discusses a wide range of issues, from lighting and location to establishing relationships with subjects, and practical strategies for starting a larger portraiture project.

Genres: Photography, Media Analysis

127 pages, Paperback

First published November 12, 2019

About the author

Dawoud Bey (New York, 1953) has for decades made groundbreaking and evocative work about the histories of Black communities. His numerous honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships. A major career retrospective of his work, An American Project, was co-organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2020–22). Bey holds a master of fine arts degree from Yale University School of Art and is currently professor of art and a former Distinguished College Artist at Columbia College Chicago, where he has taught since 1998. His books include Class Pictures (Aperture, 2007), Seeing Deeply (2018), Dawoud Bey on Photographing People and Communities (Aperture, 2019), and Street Portraits (2021).

Reviews

[Matthew Dingley]

The first half of the book covers a fascinating exposition of Bey's underlying philosophy about "making photos" with strangers; while sharing stories about how his own discoveries of the medium developed his own approach to portraiture. The second half focuses a little more on the journeys he took in making some of his photography series and continues to explore the ideas of co-authorship, representation, marginalized communities and directing the subject - subjects which Bey has clearly spent his whole career focusing on.

I really recommend this book and I suspect it's one that I will return to reread on multiple occasions in the future.

[R.J.W]

I would highly recommend this book, above all, to white photographers. Many of whom need to seriously re-evaluate their entitled approach to photographing ‘the other’ and understanding that some subjects are simply not theirs to claim. Jimmy Nelson should take note.

This book helped me re-evaluate my understanding of the right of authorship a photographer has or doesn’t have, and has helped me develop my practice in a way that is immensely valuable to my photography Masters’ degree and beyond.

[Victoria]

absolutely loved - review to come

[SG Pratt]

lit a fire under my ass

[Jan]

Very instructive book, like a workshop, on how Bey developed himself as a photographer. Informative and well done.

His pictures are great, his approach both intuitive and sensitive, very aware of the subject.

[Lily]

What is cool about this collection is seeing the sets of images paired with the photographers experience, technique, interests, learning, and process. It reads as a how-to about art and work, but the images also stand on their own.

[Michael Mercado]

Excellent glimpse into the world of photography and what it means to be working within a community. I’m not even close to a real photographer but I absolutely loved the humility Bey shared within his extensive photography career. Keep the faith and practice!

[Trey Piepmeier]

This is good. Feels a bit like an annotated Bey's greatest hits with some other photographers's works sprinkled in. Lots of good advice for how to portray folks with dignity and respect.

[Andrew]

A great read for any level of photographer.

[Olga Shatokha]

So profound and sometimes heartbreaking… a must read for any portrait photographer

[Ana Diaz]

It has some technicalities for someone who’s not knowledgeable about photography but what a beautiful way to portray an artist’s work, their development and the art of storytelling. 🌟♥️

[Tynan Brooks]

Fantastic thoughts and photos. Bey's articulation of his project development process is particularly strong.

[Sewan Gurung]

A well thought out book by the author himself and his love with photography.