Dawoud Bey, Kanisha, 1996

In 1996, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, began its Picturing the South

initiative, commissioning photographers from across the world to offer new perspectives on the American South. “The idea was that they would move beyond the clichés and stereotypes and create a new visual vernacular for the [area],” writes Madeleine Pollard for Elephant. To mark the project’s 25th anniversary, the museum is now staging an exhibition of the artworks it spawned, including this striking four-panel portrait by Dawoud Bey, which sees a high school student adopt a pose deliberately

reminiscent of those painted by Rembrandt. Read more about Bey’s series, and the other exhibition highlights, here.