After seeing Dawoud Bey class pictures, I have noticed some robust features in his work that have stood out to me. The way Dawoud Bey uses the lighting and foreground-background to make the subject stand out. In his portrait, the subject is the primary focus, and each subject has a different expression. For example in one of his photographer, he uses the young girl (Lauren) to portrait as someone who is hopeful and thankful. Her appearance matches well with the captions; it captures a girl whose grateful to her parents and who has a bright future. Bey’s Shalanta portraits capture a young girl whose strong and confident. The reason why Shalanta portraits this way is because of her facial expressions, her smile. Her hands crossed under her chin, and the smile shows someone whose willing to take on the world. It portrays someone who knows what she wants in life. Bey’s portraits have different subjects, each subject posing differently. The facial expression on his subject plays a significant role you get to feel and see the theme each subject is feeling. The subject expression defines who they are; you feel their hope and ideas. Their pose expresses their thoughts and emotions.  In Bey’s portraits, the background plays a role as well.  We see that they are students and they’re the future. The lighting used on the subjects make each subject proud and confident. When it comes to portraits photography, I lack in that area. I don’t often show my ideas. The ideas I got from Bey’s photography is to use lighting and foreground-background.