AN AMERICAN ICON

For nearly 30 years, Dawoud Bey has been a fixture at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago. His first experience was through a residency that catalyzed his career with his inaugural Chicago exhibition. Today, as Professor of Photography, Bey engages his students in dialogues about art and justice and challenges them to think about how their work interacts not just in the world now but also into the future.

Known for his work that depicts Black culture and history in America, Professor Bey is a pioneer of contemporary photography. Through his masterful eyes and his camera lens, his photography subtly yet profoundly captures the complicated and interwoven past and present of Black life in America.

From his early street photography work of Harlem, USA to his evocative portraits from The Birmingham Project and his large-scale series about the Underground Railroad, Night Coming Tenderly, Black, Professor Bey’s career has spanned more than four decades. He has exhibited around the world, given a voice to marginalized communities, and inspired the next generation of contemporary artists through his teachings.