Submitted by Al …
(Adapted from The Encyclopedia of Photography ©1963)
Roy DeCarava is a painter turned photographer. Born in New York City in 1919, he attended local schools, graduating from Textile High School where he majored in art. Wanting to become a painter, he entered Cooper Union Institute of Art and studied with Bryon Thomas and Morris Kantor. He also trained as a commercial artist and after graduation went to work as an all-around studio man for an advertising agency.
He became interested in making silk screen prints and had several one-man shows during this period. In the late 1940s, DeCarava began photographing his silk screen prints intending to use the photographs for his records. However, he soon discovered he was becoming deeply interested in photography itself. In terms of his ability to see and express himself, he says, ‘I found I was a success on my own terms in taking photographs.’ He soon realized he had to make a choice. ‘I had to decide if I was going to be a painter or a photographer. And in 1950, I decided to give up painting and spend all the time I had on photography.’
During the next few years Roy DeCarava had several one-man shows. His work came to the attention of Edward Steichen, then Director of the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Photography. Steichen bought several of DeCarava’s pictures for the Museum’s collection and recommended that he apply for a Guggenheim Fellowship, which he received in 1952.
Roy DeCarava felt that the Negro people had been photographed in a superficial way, sometimes stereotyped, often patronized.
He therefore decided to photograph the everyday life of Harlem during his Fellowship year. He wanted to show the true circumstances in which people live: their home life, their strength and humour, and their struggle for equality. Gradually he accumulated a large group of powerful pictures on these themes. He attempted to interest several publishers in doing a book based on these photographs, but without success.
One day he showed them to poet Langston Hughes, thinking that he ‘might get a kick out of them.’ Hughes, excited by the pictures, suggested doing a book together. DeCarava gave him about 500 photographs to look over and together they selected the pictures for their collaborative effort, ‘The Sweet Flypaper of Life.’
Published in 1955, ‘The Sweet Flypaper of Life’ has been hailed as a masterpiece; one of those rare volumes in which there is a consummate relationship between pictures and words. Jacob Deschin of the New York Times said, ‘… the close interweaving of Roy DeCarava’s sympathetic photographs of Harlem life, and Langston Hughes’ fictionalized account of what he read in them, is probably unique in photographic literature.
DeCarava has contributed to the historic ‘Family of Man’ show, as well as to two other Museum of Modern Art exhibitions; ‘Always the Young Strangers’ and ’74 Photographers Look at New York.’ His work has also been included in the ‘Photography in the Fine Arts’ collections exhibited at many museums throughout the country.
Recently a group of his pictures was used as an integral part of Harry Belafonte’s television show, ‘New York 19.’ He also photographed the production of the film, ‘Requiem for a Heavyweight,’ producing a series that has attracted much attention. Actor Anthony Quinn bought 200 prints from DeCarava, creating a new record.
Roy DeCarava has just completed another picture book, this time concerning jazz. His photographs concentrate on the people who live it, play it, and listen to it. Called ‘The Sound I Saw,’ this as yet unpublished book has a free verse text written by DeCarava and contains over 200 pictures.
Roy DeCarava makes his living doing magazine photography, album covers, and a variety of other work, but on his own time he photographs the turbulent lives of ordinary people. His way of seeing is direct, forceful, and scrupulously honest. He includes nothing that is artificial or forced. His technique is always impeccable.
Asked for a statement on his photographic point of view, Roy DeCarava said: ‘Photography is many things to many people; to me … it is a means of getting inside from outside, and from inside to outside.’
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