Alphawood Foundation proudly announces the publication of Patric McCoy: Take My Picture, an 80-page catalog commemorating the popular photography exhibition of the same name presented by Alphawood Exhibitions at Wrightwood 659 from April 14 - July 15, 2023.

The exhibition Patric McCoy: Take My Picture featured a selection of 52 black & white and color photographs documenting Black gay Chicago in the 1980s. Throughout the decade, Patric McCoy – a prolific photographer and art collector – traveled around Chicago on his bike, always with his camera. From the lakefront to the Loop, McCoy found no shortage of Black men who wanted their picture taken. Over a ten-year period, he shot thousands of images at his subjects’ request, with McCoy’s subjects neither posed nor directed. Each had agency over how he is seen, elevating the subject’s humanity, inverting and subverting the gaze. As HIV/AIDS hit Black men especially hard, Take My Picture could be seen as a marker of place, time, and memory.

The softcover publication features nearly all of the photos from the exhibition, along with statements by the artist and by the exhibition curator, Juarez Hawkins, and a comprehensive introductory essay by Hawkins. Patric McCoy: Take My Picture ($10.00) is available for purchase via https://wrightwood659.org/publications/ or by visiting Wrightwood 659.