Known for his striking portraits of people taken on the street, Dawoud Bey turned to one of the Polaroid Corporation’s 20 x 24-inch cameras, a gargantuan and cumbersome version of the instant camera, to make studio portraits of a number of sitters, including friends and artists he admired. These studio sessions allowed Bey to orchestrate every condition of the image and to have a more contemplative, sustained engagement with each sitter. Inspired by Rembrandt and Caravaggio, Bey’s use of color and lighting reference Old Master paintings, and the two-panel format recalls Italian and Dutch paired wedding portraits.