October 24 – December 20, 2009

In these forty intimate color portraits, the photographer Dawoud Bey closely collaborated with the high school students from diverse economic, racial and ethnic backgrounds to create a compelling portrait of contemporary American youth. Their own texts accompany the photographs and together, portray a remarkable and compelling complexity and strength. Bey will be a visiting artist at MSU during the show.

October 24 – December 1, 2009

John Pfahl has been photographing since he was five. Working in series, mainly landscapes, two things are consistent: Pfahl’s love of nature and admiration for art historical references. Over half of the entire portfolio (48 photographs) of his seminal 1977 work, Altered Landscapes, from the KAM collection will be on view. In the days before digital manipulation, Pfahl physically altered the landscape by adding various objects to it, so carefully and painstakingly placing them that the illusion of belonging is convincing. This series helped to establish Pfahl at the forefront of color photography.

As part of Kresge Art Museum’s 50th Anniversary celebrations, we offer this on-line exhibition that looks behind the scenes and below the surface.