Artist Dawoud Bey captures portraits of UF freshmen for project at Harn

July 21, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Through Aug. 1, artist Dawoud Bey is photographing incoming freshman students at the University of Florida.

These are the first college-focused portraits by Bey for display with his famous photography series of teenagers. A selection of the photographs will be on view Oct. 5 through Jan. 2, 2011, in “Dawoud Bey: First-Year Florida Project” at the Harn Museum of Art. The project will complement the nationally touring exhibition “Class Pictures: Photographs by Dawoud Bey,” which will be on view during the same period of time at the Harn.

“Dawoud Bey: First-Year Florida Project” will feature up to 20 photographs of 40 incoming UF students. The subjects will be photographed in pairs and biographical statements will be displayed beside the works in the exhibition. Bey will capture a diverse selection of students whose commonality is their starting school at UF at this key time in their lives. Students are still being selected for this opportunity. Those interested should immediately contact photo@harn.ufl.edu to be considered.

“Bey is known for his sensitive and reflective portraits of teenage subjects who defy stereotypes of American youth during a complicated age, as featured in the Class Pictures exhibition,” said Tom Southall, curator of photography at the Harn Museum. “It is especially exciting for Dawoud’s first project focused on college-age students to take place here at the University of Florida. The museum will acquire 10 of these photographs for our permanent collection.”

The UF first-year student photographs are a part of the Creative B program at the University of Florida. The acquisition of photographs is made possible by the Melvin and Lorna Rubin Fund, an endowment dedicated to support photography acquisitions at the Harn Museum of Art.

Admission to the Harn Museum of Art is free. For more information about the project visit the event link at www.facebook.com/HarnMuseumofArt.