Uptown swagger and youthful exuberance collide with charisma, as a Black boy in aviator sunglasses, sharp white kicks, colorblock track jacket, and pleated pants, casually holds a paper milk carton while leaning against a wooden barricade outside a tiled movie theater ticket booth. The shadow of the seated ticket agent is precisely set to the left of the boy's face, forming a stunning composition that highlights the magnificent architecture and hints at the glamor of what awaits on the screen.
Boy in Front of the Loew's 125th Street Movie Theatre (1976) welcomes viewers to Harlem, U.S.A., the first of eight compelling and unique series of photographs on view at Dawoud Bey: An American Project at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York through October 3. The retrospective opened at SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) in February 2020 and traveled to the High Museum in Atlanta in November 2020 before coming to the Whitney on April 17. The exhibition is co-curated by Elisabeth Sherman, assistant curator at the Whitney, and Corey Keller, curator of photography at SFMOMA.
Every image is a highlight of a prolific career that examines the various processes of photography as painstakingly as it explores and exposes the human condition. Prepare to spend hours gazing at the portraits in an intimate exchange with Bey's sitters and situations.
