Dawoud Bey Quotes & Sayings

Sara Blair's Harlem Crossroads is an important addition to the body of literature that currently exists about Harlem. It brilliantly illuminates the complex relationship between photographic representation and race, and adds new insight into the ways in which this one black community has figured in both the critical and public imaginations. Harlem Crossroads is a tour de force. — Dawoud Bey

If done well, I believe the photographic representation of the human subject has the potential to be more revealing than what is revealed by the eye alone, since the human glance is usually a momentary one. — Dawoud Bey

People say don't stare. Through the photos, not only do I stare, but I allow viewers to stare at the subject, to see things that they cannot see with a casual glance. — Dawoud Bey

Improvisational things about picture-making ... learned from working with the small camera early on have served me well in being able to think quickly when making [portraits]. — Dawoud Bey

While I have devised various formal strategies for articulating [my] concerns, I think fundamentally the work is driven by a basic curiosity. I seek to find out things about people by making photographs of them. — Dawoud Bey

I always wanted my photographs to challenge the status quo, to contest the kinds of images that existed in popular culture ... — Dawoud Bey

Black people have been killed for directing their gaze at the wrong person. I want my subjects to reclaim their right to look, to see, to be seen. — Dawoud Bey