2008 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers

Class Pictures: Photographs by Dawoud Bey; Essays by Jock Reynolds and Taro Nettleton; and Interview by Carrie Mae Weems. Class pictures is a collection of photographs taken by Dawoud Bey. Bey visits different schools and takes pictures of certain students of different nationalities and economic status. Before he takes the photographs he provides the student with a lined paper to write anything they want about themselves. As I read first saw the collection of photographs, I like many people, stereotyped some of them by their looks but was pleasantly surprised at the things they wrote about themselves. In his interview he tells how some parents and teachers have approached him and told him that after reading what some of the students wrote about themselves or just their thoughts, they learned something new about them or found an explanation to some of their behaviors in the school.