DAWOUD BEY: STREET PORTRAITS

London, England: MACK Publishers, 2021. First Edition. First Printing.. Hardcover. As New/No Dust Jacket, As Issued.. London, England: MACK Publishers, 2021. Hardcover. As New/None, As Issued. First Edition/First Printing. 120 pages. Retrospective collection of portrait-photographs. One of Dawoud Bey's finest achievements. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. A brilliant production by MACK: Oversize-volume format. Pale-gray cloth boards with photographic reproduction pasted in front and black titles embossed on the cover and spine, as issued. Photographs by Dawoud Bey. Essay by Gregory Tate, the late great music and culture critic. Printed on pristine-white, thick coated stock paper in Italy to the highest standards. The reproduction quality is outstanding in every respect. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Dawoud Bey's "Street Portraits". The definitive presentation of a most important body of work, in one handsome volume. "From 1988 to 1991, Dawoud Bey made a series of portraits of African-Americans in the streets of various American cities. Using a large-format tripod-mounted camera and a unique positive/negative Polaroid film that created both an instant print and a reusable negative, he asked a cross-section of the populations of these communities to pose for him, creating a space of self-presentation and performance in the streets of the urban environment. As part of every encounter, Bey gave each person a black-and-white Polaroid print of themselves as a way of reciprocating and returning something to the people who had allowed him to make their portrait. Defying racial stereotypes, the resulting portraits reveal the Black subjects in all of their psychologically rich complexity, presenting themselves openly and intimately to the camera, the viewer, and the world" (Publisher's blurb) . An absolute "must-have" title for Dawoud Bey collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in black ink-pen on the half-title page by Dawoud Bey. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on the tiny bookplate that the publisher issued during the 2021 pandemic, which prevented the artist from signing copies in person. It comes with a frame-able 6 X 8 inch Souvenir Portrait (of a young African-American couple) , which appears on Page 73. This title is a great collection. As far as we know, this is the only such title-page signed copy (with Souvenir Portrait) of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. A rare signed copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with black-and-white plates, 1 Souvenir Portrait. One of the most brilliant American photographers of our time. A fine collectible copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER DAWOUD BEY TITLES IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 1913620107.