Dawoud Bey
“I strongly believe that artists are the maintainers of a people’s culture, and it is the role of any serious artist to enhance the strong cultural ties that make us who we are.” -Dawoud Bey, 1979
Dawoud Bey is an artist, educator, and writer based in Chicago, Illinois, but born in Queens, New York. From 1975 to 1979, Bey took a series of photographs that celebrate the Harlem community. The image In the Streets Our Future Becoming exemplifies Bey’s acute awareness of the deep connection between Harlemites and the neighborhood. Whether it be his early street photography of the 1970s taken with a hand-held camera to his more current, monumentally scaled photography, Bey’s work continues to evoke feelings of empathy between both photographer and subject, and between the viewer and the photograph.
In the Streets Our Future Becoming
Title: In the Streets Our Future Becoming
Artist: Dawoud Bey (b. 1953)
Date: 1976
Medium: silver gelatin
Dimensions: 13 1/8 x 18 7/8 inches
Accession Number: H77.80
Harlem Art Collection
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