Ed. 2/6 archival pigment photograph
40 x 48” (101.6 x 121.9 cm)
Courtesy of Stephen Daiter Gallery
The Cooper Gallery Permanent Collection
30 years after the first series, Dawoud Bey revisits his work in Harlem Redux. Dawoud Bey's first Harlem photography series premiered at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1979. Shot entirely in black and white, Bey illustrates the liveliness of the city streets through his delicate portrayal of the residents, their daily habits, their relationships, and how they make Harlem home. In a stunning use of his own artwork for the contribution to visual history, Bey returns to Harlem 30 years later to reprise his original project with Harlem Redux. His photographs chart the effects of general change over time and the more pointed, sociopolitically motivated acts of gentrification inflicted upon the neighborhood of Harlem. This time, he shoots in full digital color. There is empathy for his subjects in his photographic eye, made visible in the way he captures the familiar usage of chain-link fences to sell the contents of one’s wardrobe, or to observe the way construction barriers, containers and keep-out signs barricade a man in his own neighborhood.
