The MFAH is giving a large exhibit of several projects by American Photographer Dawoud Bey. Bey has been exploring the lives of ordinary black people in the USA for more than 40 years. These people stare back at us, the viewers. We cannot really fathom what it is to be black in this country, yesterday, today, tomorrow. Walking through the large display of portraits, close ups, intimate moments gives us a glimpse of that reality, but just a glimpse. Some look back at us beat, others are fierce, disillusioned, full of hopes. Dawoud’s street photography is powerful. His encounters with his fellow American authentic.

A Girl with a Knife Nosepin, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1990. From the “Black-and-White Type 55 Polaroid Street Portraits” series ©Dawoud Bey/University of Texas Press
A Couple in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1990. From the “Black-and-White Type 55 Polaroid Street Portraits” series ©Dawoud Bey/University of Texas Press
Jean Shamburger and Kyrian McDaniel, Birmingham, Ala., 2012. From “The Birmingham Project” series ©Dawoud Bey/University of Texas Press
A woman at Fulton Street and Washington Avenue, 1989 ©Dawoud Bey
A man at Fulton Street and Cambridge Place, 1988 ©Dawoud Bey