Photography: Defining What's Real

Photographs are often considered, tokens of remembrance, they capture and preserve emotions, feelings, time and place. In the words of author Eudora Welty “A good snapshot stops a moment from running away.”

             Photography has always been an interest of mine but I’ve hardly had the time to pursue it. With this in mind I set out to find a place locally that centered on photography hoping for some inspiration and more importantly motivation to become a better photographer. In my pursuit I discovered the Silver Eye Center for Photography, a photo gallery on the Southside of Pittsburgh. I decided right then and there this was it.

Upon Arriving at the gallery 27 pairs of eyes greet visitors. The building however happens to be mostly unoccupied. These eyes belong to the teenagers being featured in the current Classroom Photos exhibit. 

The gallery is initially empty except for the man behind the desk. He’s wearing a red and blue plaid shirt and has tortoise shelled thick-rimmed glasses, and he looks to be in his late 20’s and very is approachable.

Dawoud Bey, Odalys, 2003, Chadsey High School, Detroit, Michigan Courtesy of the artist

The smell of the polished wood is quite evident. The gallery is composed of hardwood floors and plain white paint covers the walls. It is very trendy, with white fixtures, and studio lights focused on the artwork. The gallery is spacious yet still small, there is no furniture. The photos on the wall are griping, some quite haunting, and of course each tell a story.

The gallery attendant, Jeffrey, is very well informed about the gallery and the artistic process, probably due to his time as a student of photography at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. Jeffrey works Saturdays and sees anywhere between 5-10 people visit on any given weekend. He also states that the gallery features both local and national artists.

Jeffery shares that in between shows he helps take down and install exhibitions which he enjoys “It gives me a behind the scenes look at how a gallery functions, and has taught me a lot about marketing myself.” Jeffrey hopes to one day establish himself as a professional photographer and praises working at the gallery for the experience it gives him. It has helped him make well-known contacts in the photography community that will benefit him in the future.

A teenage visitor peruses for a while, taking in the photos.  “I’m impressed with the pictures and their great quality.” She tells me.

Jeffery, is also very excited about the current exhibition in the gallery, and shares some information about it. “It is a collection of classroom photos by artist Dawoud Bey.” Seeing Bey’s pictures makes me wonder about him as an artist and more so about his creative process.

According to Dawoud Bey’s website he is a national artist who has been taking photographs for a number of years; He has a Masters of Fine Arts from Yale University and currently resides in Chicago where he is a professor at a local college. Also according to the website he has three books that have been published in conjunction with his exhibitions.

Dawoud Bey, Lauren, 2006, Gateway High School, San Francisco, California Courtesy of the artist

The gallery advertises an upcoming event, which is essentially “An Evening with Dawoud Bey.”

When the night comes, In front of around 100 people in the Carnegie Museum of Art Auditorium, the solemn artist sits in the front row waiting patiently as people file in.

At about 6:35, 5 minutes after the designated start time a woman with short brown hair and an airy voice approaches the podium.

Linda Benedict Jones, curator at the Carnegie Museum of Art begins the lecture by noting it’s been a good year for photography at the museum and in Pittsburgh.

Following the curator’s remarks a very petite dark haired woman, in a dress and boots approaches the podium, I recognize her as Ellen, the director from Silver Eye. She introduces Bey stating that he’s a very sought after artist who has received numerous awards celebrating his work.  

Bey then approaches the stage as the lights dim, and a PowerPoint is projected onto the pull down screen and he then begins speaking slowly and deliberately.

Dawoud Bey is a middle aged African American man, with small gold hoop earrings in his ear, a full beard, wearing all black and casually sipping from the plastic water bottle provided to him.

He takes the audience back to his days as a teenager and enlightens us as to his work all started.  It was 1969 when Bey saw an exhibit in the Metropolitan Museum of Art called “Harlem on my Mind.” The Harlem exhibit was controversial and constructed an image of black America without permission; there were picket lines in front of the Met and he wanted to see the controversy first hand.

Bey says the photos he remembered most were by James VanDeZee who was an African-American Photographer taking pictures of other African Americans. Looking at VanDerZee’s pictures was the first time he had seen pictures of African American subjects on the walls of a museum.

Bey tells of how he inherited his first camera at the age of 16 from his godfather who had recently passed away. He had no idea what to do with the camera and “only took it to be polite” however it piqued his curiously and he eventually learned how to use the camera.  His passion for his craft is evident from his words and body language. The audience is hanging on his every word.

Bey tells us he learned a great deal about photography during his early years. He had to figure out how one finds subjects, and realized that the photos that resonated the most were those with human subjects, but didn’t know where to find them. Eventually he picked a place and was ultimately able to see how photos functioned as a window into the past. 

Another influence on Bey was Roy DeCarava, who was also an African American photographer. His photos were significant to Bey because they were about African American subjects and they were entirely self-motivated, no newspaper or studio interest. DeCarava’s photos showed Bey that African American subjects could be the basis of rigorous art practices.

Dawoud Bey, Sarah, 2005, Lawrence High School, Lawrence Massachusetts Courtesy of the artist

Bey personally began in 1975 photographing in Harlem.  He was connected to Harlem, it was where his parents met and he had lived there growing up. Photography began to occupy his cultural imagination. He began with a 35-millimeter camera, photographing people in Harlem and worked on the Harlem Project from 1975-1979 and finally in 1979 he had his first 1 person exhibition of his photos called Harlem U.S.A.

Since he was still an amateur He hadn’t established a relationship between tools and product yet and made the connection that certain cameras give you certain kinds of pictures. Eventually he did and moved on to using different types of cameras for different types of pictures.

He obviously has mastered his craft and use of tools over the years because Bey’s photographs are absolutely captivating. When one walks into the gallery; the sheer size and quantity of the photos are overwhelming and the quality is mind-blowing.

Some of the back-stories told on the autobiographical captions that accompany the photographs are rather tragic and almost bring tears to the viewers’ eyes. You feel for the subjects and wonder if they made it out of their situations, you automatically want to root for them. It is emotionally taxing. This is clearly the artist’s intent.

The photographs are chromogenic prints of 27 very different teens plagued by death, disease, teen pregnancy, and stereotypes, each trying to find their place in the world.

The people featured in the photographs are very real. They’re what high school student’s look like, what I looked like and what I saw. These are not images you come to believe are real like the ones photo shopped in magazines and on TV, with overly attractive people. These kids have scars, chipped nail polish and messy hair, all visible imperfections. They have far from perfect wardrobes, and that doesn’t bother them at all, the kids are photographed as they are. They are all different races, ethnicities, religions, and come from different socio-economic backgrounds.  According to Martin L. Johnson in an article from Baltimore’s City Paper “[Bey’s] photos retain sympathy for his subjects even if they reveal the oily skin and bad hair that are part of the adolescent experience.” I couldn’t agree more.

They all have very different histories, yet combine to create Bey’s masterpiece.

Each picture features a white caption with black text. The captions are first had accounts of each teen’s struggles, passions, and hopes for the future.

The photographs and stories behind them make visitors wonder where the subjects are now and what became of these people since the some of the photos were taken almost a decade ago.  Where are they now? Are they are accomplishing their goals as adults? All of these questions are left lingering in the viewers mind after seeing the exhibit

Dawoud Bey, Kevin, 2005, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts Courtesy of the artist

A boy named Kevin stands out in particular. His photo is used in most of the texts and articles promoting the exhibit. Kevin is an African American teen from Massachusetts who lost his father at a young age. His eyes are soft and kind yet he seems to posses a hard exterior, like he has obvious walls put up and it seems like it takes him a while to open up to others. He wears a cap with his name spray-painted on it, ones like they sell at amusement parks or beaches; he also wears a blue- grey track jacket from trendy store French Connection, and jeans. Kevin’s image stuck with me and ironically with Bey as well. Bey has been in contact with Kevin and according to the artist Kevin, is now a student at Emory University at Atlanta getting his PhD in social linguistics. It was great to hear that Bey knew what became of at least one of these people and it was even more inspiring to hear the great things Kevin has gone on to do with his life.

Since the photos were so awing I wondered about the process of producing these class portraits. Bey explained in depth during his lecture the steps he took to create this vast body of work.

In order to achieve this spectacular exhibit Bey visited high schools across the nation over a span of fifteen years. He shot the students in their school environments and asked them to write brief captions of themselves to accompany their photos.

Dawoud Bey's Class Pictures: The Process from Aperture Foundation on Vimeo.

It started out as a project he was commissioned for by a Chicago museum and took on a life of its own. After he began in Chicago he then spent 2 months in Detroit, Orlando, San Francisco, and finally New York. In each city there was collaboration with a local art intuition.

He set up in an empty classroom and only had 45 minutes to make the photos and text. Students were excused from class for 45 minutes to participate in the project.

When he first started the project the student’s texts took the format of audio recordings. “You’d hear the young person speak to you as you stood in front of the photos.” Bey explained. However it wasn’t practical, and was too time consuming so Bey started having the students write their statements.

He would say to them “write something about yourselves that people don’t know that they should if they really want to know you. “

He had them split their time, between writing their statements and producing the photographs. While they were writing he determined how much time he had to make the picture.  If they wrote for 10 minutes he had 35 minutes to produce a picture however if they took 30 minutes to write that only left him with 15. Due to these time constraints he had to work fast. He never read what they wrote while they were in the room, he thought “it would be disruptive of the psychology of the moment to read it in front of them and then subsequently make a picture.”

He also didn’t want to try to make a picture that matched the emotions of what they said in the moment.  He simply hoped the photography was an accurate portrayal in the end and waited for a complete representation.

Dawoud Bey's Class Pictures: Response from the Teenagers from Aperture Foundation on Vimeo.

Bey says he was often amazed at the quality of articulate self-reflection these kids were able to engage in. “Young people are often more complex then they’re given credit for.”

Bey’s lecture was nothing short of amazing.  He informed the audience not only of his artistic capabilities and process but also informed the audience of future projects. His lecture was not only inspiring to me, but to others who attended as well.

Sydney Zalewski, an architecture major and a studio arts minor, at Carnegie Mellon University informed me that “it was an amazing lecture, very moving and inspiring” she noted Bey’s huge body of work and how she enjoyed hearing him speak about his influences as a photographer. She also really admired how his projects are about helping children.

She had not yet been to the Silver Eye Center for Photography but Linda Benedict Jones, the curator of the Carnegie Museum of Art also teaches one of her classes and encouraged her to attend the lecture.

Luyba Zaylikman, who also attends CMU, had seen the gallery exhibit prior to the lecture.

 She’s from New York and noted that the art depicts High School Students who are probably her age by now, and she “felt like she knew someone like that.”

 “It’s great he’s interested in teens and giving them a voice.”

            The same sentiments were clearly felt throughout the audience as the thunderous applause filled the room upon Bey’s departure from the stage. He’d only spoken an hour but the message he was able to convey to so many that night will not soon be forgotten. Not by me or anyone else in attendance.

Having spoken to the gallery’s education coordinator Richard Kelly prior to the event his words meant so much more after hearing Bey speak.  

“Photography is very accessible to most people, you can collect what you like and want to enjoy in your own setting, and it’s definitely always evolving.”  

Mr. Kelly also stated that photography can serve as a great segue into other types of art.  “Well art can be intimidating for people who didn’t grow up in an art enriched environment, and they tend to think art is ‘not for people like me’ but photography is a good way for people unfamiliar to art and museums to ease their way into the art world.”

After seeing the pictures and hearing what Dawoud Bey had to say I am more determined than ever to enhance my photography skills. Photography isn’t just a past time, it is an art and deserves to be appreciated as such. Going forward I’ll be doing just that and I’ll also be forever grateful to Silver Eye and Dawoud Bey to opening my eyes to the world of photography.