Museum to present 'Picturing People' exhibit

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

An exhibition of photographs by Dawoud Bey will open Thursday at the McDonough Museum of Modern Art, and run through Feb. 12. Admission is free.

Titled “Dawoud Bey: Picturing People,” the exhibition is an expansive career survey of the Chicago-based photographer. His work ranges from street encounters to formal studio portraits.

Bey is distinguished for his commitment to portraiture as a means for understanding contemporary society.

He first gained notoriety as a photographer for his acclaimed series Harlem U.S.A., exhibited at the Studio Museum in New York in 1979.

Since 2010, Bey has been photographing two individuals who, although members of the same socio-geographic community, are strangers to one another.

Casually positioned side by side, between them are differences in age, race, comportment, gender and other characteristics, calling into question the terms on which community is imagined in relation to self and vice versa.

The 50 images in “Picturing People,” organized by the Renaissance Society of the University of Chicago, represent the evolution of Bey’s work in the three decades since he rose to fame. During this time, he continued his portraiture of primarily African-American and teenage subjects. The photographs will be on display from Jan. 22 through March 7.

Bey also will be Youngs-town State University’s African-American History Month keynote speaker at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 12 in the McDonough Galleries..

The museum, 525 Wick Ave., is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. For information, call 330-941-1400.