Brilliant concept and photos | Dawoud Bey: Class Pictures | Jock Reynolds, Taro Nettleton, ... ...

No Need to Defend a Great Photographer | Dawoud Bey: Class Pictures | Jock Reynolds, Taro Nettleton, ...

books:


	• Dawoud Bey: Class Pictures Jock Reynolds, Taro Nettleton, ... Aperture, 2007 - 164 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Portraits of American Youth

Brilliant photographs of a diverse section of American high school students accompanied by poignant personal essays. Heady stuff!

Brilliant concept and photos

I saw this book described in Newsweek, and wanted to know more about the photographer and the ideas behind his work. Love this book! It's all about seeing class="textlinks">beyond what you assume about other human beings, and coming face to face with the uniqueness of individuals. Hoping to use it as a resource/tool (plus the website, with actual recorded voice-overs) in classroom discussion about stereotypes. Book seemed brand new! Great discount/value.

for more information click here

No Need to Defend a Great Photographer

Earlier this year, I received an invitation to the Aperture Gallery in Manhattan to see an exhibition by Dawoud class="textlinks">Bey. I was not familiar with his work, but I was intrigued by the photograph on the invitation, so I went. I was astounded by the larger-than-life portraits that filled the gallery. It was wonderful spending time studying these pictures and then reading the short bios that went with them.

While I was there, I purchased this book based on the exhibit. Like all books that essentially reproduce art, it doesn't have the same impact as the exhibit itself. Something about the large scale of the photographs in the gallery adds something that can't be repeated in book form; however, looking at the pictures and reading the blurbs made it easier for me to take myself back to the gallery. And, even so, the pictures are so well done that they still have a powerful, if different, impact in this book.

My only disappointment in this book was in the two forwards: one by Jock Reynolds and the other by Taro Nettleton. Though they both had insightful things to say about Bey's work, particularly earlier projects of his, they both felt the need to mention a negative critical review of Bey's work by Ken Johnson of the New York Times. I felt this to be unnecessary and distracting. Not that there's no place to counter a critics observations but in a book like this, it came across a defensive--as if the work cannot speak for itself and needs to be defended in advance.

Still, apart from that, this book is wonderful. Creating portraits worth looking at is no easy task, particularly for photographers. Velazquez and Rembrandt were geniuses of portraiture but they had a different kind of skill and a flexibility that Bey does not have available to him when a subject sits in front of the lens. Still, he manages to capture something that, in his best work, I would like to hang next to a Rembrandt.

for more information click here

Don't judge a kid by it's cover

Dawoud class="textlinks">Bey gives us an opportunity to look on the inside of our kids with their words and his eye. You can't help but be mesmerized by great portraits and the self accounts that these young adults share. Fantastic piece of modern American art.

A must see

When a book is published which includes both text and photos - the text usually overtakes the photos; this rare book with text and photos is not one of those usual books. This book's text does not overtake the photos; this speaks to the power of the photos. A must see - - (and a must read).

For the past 15 years, Dawoud class="textlinks">Bey has been making striking, large-scale color portraits of students at high schools across the United States. Depicting teenagers from a wide economic, social and ethnic spectrum--and intensely attentive to their poses and gestures--he has created a highly diverse group portrait of a generation that intentionally challenges teenage stereotypes.Bey spends two to three weeks in each school, taking formal portraits of individual students, each made in a classroom during one 45-minute period. At the start of the sitting, each subject writes a brief autobiographical statement. By turns poignant, funny or harrowing, these revealing words are an integral part of the project, and the subject's statement accompanies each photograph in the book. Together, the words and images in Class Pictures offer unusually respectful and perceptive portraits that establish Dawoud Bey as one of the best portraitists at work today.

for more information click here

hot