Photographer, writer, and lecturer Lee Bey has used his experience as a Chicago native to help uncover, highlight, and preserve the historical significance and importance of architecture within Black communities. In 2017 Bey showcased Southern Exposure, an exhibition at the Chicago Architecture Biennial consisting of photographs of buildings located on Chicago's South Side. 

After years of documenting, Bey has created a deeper meaning behind these buildings. The images he's captured are reflections and visual narratives of his perspectives and viewpoints behind the camera lens. In tandem with his exhibition, Bey published his book Southern Exposure: The Overlooked Architecture of Chicago's South Side. Previously covered on Archinect, he shared in conversation with Iker Gil that "The exhibition and the book grew up together [...] The idea was to not make the book an exhibition book, but to use the exhibition as inspiration and to go beyond the show and showcase more buildings and places, and have the text delve deeply into the South Side's—and Chicago's—historic issues of race and racial prejudice against black people."

Within his book, Bey highlights a set of buildings key to Chicago's urban landscape and the effects of their existence within communities, Black Churches. He shares with Chicago's PBS station WTTW, "A church can mark a community's place," Bey says, "and I think that's important, particularly in the case of Black churches, because so many Black churches are inherited. I think there's a bit of extra pride for the churches that we build ourselves, like First Church of Deliverance or Liberty Baptist. It's a way to mark your presence in this new city, as well as bring a bit of your worship style, your craftsmanship, yourself into it."

During his conversation with Daniel Hautzinger of WTTW, Bey dissects the history and architectural styles found within a selection of Chicago churches in preparation for WTTW's upcoming program special "The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song," set to premiere on February 17th. He unpacks the social and historical relevance churches play within Black communities from how these churches were acquired, inherited, and built to represent the congregation and people they housed.