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.