Monthly Archives: September 2018

Dawoud Bey – Class Pictures

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Dawoud Bey’s classroom series is an excellent photo series that captures the absolute essence of honest expression.  Each of the images that are shown on the site have a very individualistic quality about them. Bey uses posing as well as framing to emphasize the expression of each of his subjects.  None of the subjects are placed up against a wall and shot straight on. Instead they are carefully placed about the classroom, framed in the center but their posture differentiates which adds an interesting quality to the photo.  The background is out of focus and changes with each subject, but helps to draw interest into the focus of the subject which tends to be there eyes. And each subject seems to speak something different through the language of their gaze. The photo of “Antoine” shows a somewhat optimistic look in his eyes and his overall posture seems relaxed.  While on the other hand “Kevin” leans in to the camera with a strong sense of sterness being said with his eyes.

 

Bey has a great way of capturing the descriptions of the students through the images.  Shalanta speaks on the importance of positivity surrounding her, and from her look you may be intimidated but she’s truly a “fun-going” person.  This is completely understood from the image itself. Without even reading the description the image describes her as confident from her expression and the way she carries herself.  Yet her smile emphasizes that behind the confidence she is also a caring and kind person.

 

Aside from the subjects. Dawoud uses lighting that really highlights the subjects face.  The emphasis of each of the photos lands on the face, which is the most important part in each of these images.  Since the facial expression, and eyes are what immediately tell us a story.

 

Dawoud Bey – Class Pictures

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Dawoud Bey’s class pictures aren’t the typical cookie cutter photos you take at school every year where you sit upright, your body turned at a slight angle, and your face turned to the camera. This series is very powerful because not only does it capture the essence of each student but the way expression, posture, lighting, and the background are used ties it all together. Using these elements, he tells a narrative from the perspective of the student.

Bey’s portrait style is very raw and natural. From his work, you can tell he likes to capture a subject in their natural environment. He gets to know his subject before capturing them on camera. For this class picture series, he had 45 minutes sessions with each student before he photographed him or her. Establishing a connection is important because then the subject is comfortable. In these class pictures, you can see each student is sitting down and are posing in ways that feel most natural and comfortable for them. In most of the photos, he used broad light in addition to the natural lighting in the room to add depth to their expressions and the way their arms were positioned. He uses depth of field and shoots each student very close up, filling in the frame. The subject is the predominant element but the background is very significant as well. In this case, the backgrounds add to each student’s story.

From looking at Bey’s work, how I might approach portrait photography is to establish a connection with the subject. With that connection, my subject is able to feel free. I want to be able to use light to help capture emotions and mood. More importantly, I want to be able to convey a story through my subject’s eyes in a picture.

Dawoud Bey Photographs

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I think what interesting about his photographs were the positions he had the students in, the time he had to set everything up and take the picture, how he position his lighting in specific ways depending on the subject. In some of the pictures the some of the subjects depending on what they are wearing it will compliment the background, moreover the lighting he use for some of them will be brighter or darker for some of them. In one picture a girl with dark clothes had lighting that focused on one side of her body and the other side had a lot of contrast to the light. the background also followed this as well. In another picture a girl was surrounded by lighter colors so Dawoud  didn’t use a lot of lighting, most likely he used soft lighting for her.             In Dawoud photos of these kids another interesting aspect is the facial expressions each of them give. Some give a pose that more expressive than the others but the all portray something in a unique way, moreover some of the subjects are posing very differently compared to one another some are standing, others are leaning against a table, one was posing on top of a table. There were a lot of very different poses he had them do and depending on the poses was how the lighting was set up. Another thing about his photo was the depth of field in his photos, all of the background was blurred but not to the point where you didn’t know where the setting was and what was in the background. However it was still blurry enough so that the subject and their surroundings are clear which also put more focus on them in addition with the lighting he had hon them.

Dawoud Bey – Class Pictures

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Dawoud Bey photographed a number of high school students in a classroom for his series Class Pictures. He discusses how the work that went into to this photoshoot. Bey mentions that he only had 45 minutes to work with the students so he had to compose his ideas in a timely manner. There wasn’t much use of natural light in these portraits. He used studio lights to create his preferred lighting. Looking at the portraits, you can see that most of them used broad light. He had one light that lit the subject and another to fill and harsh shadows.

Bey also observed the student’s gestures and used that compose the photo. Bey mentioned that there was a lot of directing that went into this series. I believe he wanted to capture different moods with different students to show their individuality. He wanted to students to be comfortable while conducting the photoshoot. Before starting the photo shoot, he would have them write for a bit and then start. Bey paid attention to what the student was wearing to see what background was most appropriate. Based on what the student was wearing, Bey would look around him to see what items would compliment the student’s attire as well as the emotion that he wanted to capture. Bey mentioned that there was a lot of directing that went into this series. I believe he wanted to capture different moods with different students to show their individuality.

It seems like Bey had to be really decisive about each portrait while considering time. One thing that I took away from this is to look around you to see what can be used when composing a photoshoot. Bey decided to bring items that were out of the frame into the picture to compliment his subject. I learned that it is okay to move things around and do whatever you think is best to get the most successful portrait. Lighting is also very important because you can manipulate light to capture emotions.