Roy DeCarava

Photographer

• Born: December 9, 1919
• Birthplace: Harlem, New York
• Died: October 27, 2009
• Place of death: New York, New York

DeCarava was a photographer best known for his dramatic, natural-light photographs of African Americans going about their everyday lives in Harlem, New York. He also took many photographs of jazz musicians and did work for magazines, television shows, and films.

Early Life

Roy Rudolph DeCarava (dee-cah-RAH-vah) was the only child of Elfreda Ferguson; he never knew his father. DeCarava had a natural talent for art, and by age nine, he had decided to become an artist. His mother took many pictures with a Brownie camera, which made DeCarava appreciate the value of photography.

As a child, DeCarava enjoyed going to the movies, often spending all day at the theater. He saw so many black-and-white films that black-and-white photography seemed the natural choice when he began his career. DeCarava worked many jobs in grade school and high school, such as selling newspapers, shining shoes, and making posters for film marquees in Harlem, New York.

Because of his artistic talent, DeCarava attended a mainly white high school that focused on design and textiles in New York City. He did well in school despite enduring prejudice. Upon his graduation in 1938, DeCarava was admitted to the Cooper Union School of Art to study art for several more years. He then attended the mainly black Harlem Community Art Center in 1940, where he flourished among the many other black artists and musicians.

DeCarava was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942 but could not cope with the racism he experienced there. He was hospitalized after an emotional breakdown and received a medical discharge.

After early work as a painter, DeCarava switched to silk-screen printing in the mid-1940’s. Many of his silk screens, however, looked more like photographs. He began to take photographs to get ideas for his silk screens, but by the end of the 1940’s, photography had become his medium of choice.

Life’s Work

DeCarava was employed at an advertising agency as an illustrator in the late 1940’s to the 1950’s. He took many photographs with his 35-millimeter camera while going to and from work; his most dramatic photographs were of people in and around the subway that he rode. DeCarava’s photographs often are very dark, as he printed them so that they appeared underexposed. Typical photographs were of people sitting, climbing stairs, or lying down in the subway, or of inanimate objects such as an out-of-order restroom. DeCarava’s style was similar to some white photographers of the 1930’s to 1950’s, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, who also took such pictures but with mostly white people in the pictures.

DeCarava had his first exhibit of his photography in a small gallery in Manhattan in 1950, which brought some attention to his work. Edward Steichen, a famous photographer, bought some of DeCarava’s photographs and included them in other exhibits. This exposure of his work in art galleries helped DeCarava win a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1952, the first to be awarded to an African American. This fellowship gave him enough money to take a year-long leave of absence from his job, during which he took a vast number of memorable pictures in Harlem. These photographs included people talking, laughing, working, playing, and going to church, beauty parlors, barbers, bars, and stores. He published many of these photographs in The Sweet Flypaper of Life (1955), a collaboration with poet Langston Hughes that received good reviews.

DeCarava and his wife ran a gallery from 1955 to 1957 that showed the work of many photographers. He also began taking pictures of jazz musicians during this time. By 1958, DeCarava had become successful enough to quit his day job and become a full-time photographer. He often had trouble getting enough paid assignments to meet basic expenses, however. Some of his assignments included taking pictures on the set of the film Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) and work for Sports Illustrated, Scientific American, and Good Housekeeping magazines.

DeCarava was hired in 1975 to teach photography at Hunter College, work that guaranteed a steady income. That year, he took photographs in Washington, D.C., for an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. In 1978, his work was the subject of another exhibition and book called American Images. Over the succeeding decades, DeCarava taught and exhibited his work throughout the United States. In 1989, Hunter College named him a City University Distinguished Professor of Art. The Museum of Modern Art presented a retrospective of his work in 1996. DeCarava died October 27, 2009, in New York.

Significance

DeCarava is best remembered for his vivid pictures of the everyday lives of African Americans in Harlem. He was the first major photographer to capture Harlem from the black point of view. His photographs of black jazz musicians also were striking and memorable. DeCarava was an outspoken advocate for civil rights and won numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the National Medal of Arts, and a gold medal in photography from the National Arts Club. Many of his photographs reside in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston Texas.

Bibliography

DeCarava, Roy. The Sound I Saw. New York: Phaidon Press, 2003. Contains many of DeCarava’s photographs of jazz musicians, mostly taken during the 1960’s, with accompanying text by the photographer.

Galassi, Peter. Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1996. Contains a short biography of DeCarava and many of his photographs.

Short, Alvia Wardlaw. Roy DeCarava: Photographs. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1976. Contains a short essay about the 120 photographs in the book.