“I love to dance. The reason I love to dance is because I love to show how I feel at certain times. I love to be myself. I want to be an artist that can show other kids that they can do anything they can do or put their minds to. But I want to do more than that. I want to be in the music business. I think that if I work hard I can do what I want. Yes, I want to be a dancer, but I have more dreams. I think I can go anywhere.”
— Joseph
Dawoud Bey’s series Class Pictures started from a sequence of portraits the artist captured during his 1992 residency at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Andover. Over the next 15 years Bey took portraits of high school students across the United States aiming to collect the diverse faces of a generation from different backgrounds. Each sitting took 45 minutes and began with the subject writing a brief autobiography before posing in front of the photographer’s camera. Bey only read their personal statement after the session and this text appeared alongside each portrait in the published book.
Regarding this series, Bey said that he wished 'to create a compelling and significant contemporary portrait of American youth in its various social and human dimensions. I believe that such a group of photographs-with the attendant texts-will constitute a significant record and examination of our time... Rather than viewing young people through a lens of social problematics that generalizes the individual, I intend to make a rich and complex description of these subjects.’
