Dawoud Bey has devoted his career to, in his own words, “the human subject.” These sensitive portraits of five young people—after a religious service, on the steps outside their homes, and at work—reflect Bey’s ability to gain their trust and work in partnership with them. At the same time, these portraits show his longstanding effort to address a larger cultural tendency to dismiss the lives and experiences of young people, especially children of color. Bey’s monumental portraits are a powerful visual rebuttal to spaces, like museums, that have historically excluded or discouraged the presence of Black people.
