Dawoud Bey, Carolyn, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, 2003, Chromogenic print, Courtesy of the artist, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, and Gorney Bravin + Lee

Interview Excerpt

Audio: (1.5MB mp3 file; 1 minute 15 seconds)

My dad had been sick for a very long time. He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease when I was in, maybe, 8th grade, so I was about 13 and... Over a period of about 3 years he just disintegrated into basically nothing: He couldn't walk or talk or move or swallow for that matter, and then when I was 16, my sophomore year of high school, he died.

You just don't know what to do. Because you're just sort of stuck there, like "I can't do anything about what's happening right now," and it's very painful. Because you sort of forget that there's life beyond that and, especially, or... and that there was life before that because there was a period of time where it was like the disease and like the whole thing is engulfed and your memories are engulfed with all that sadness. And you try to get beyond that, but it's so hard. You have to move on with life as hard as it is, and once you reach a sort of period where you can, and you can be happy again, it is very rewarding to be able to do that and to be able to pull yourself up again, and to be stronger maybe-to be able to do that.