PHOTO:Roy DeCarava -New York 19
Roy DeCarava began his career as a painter and turned to photography in the mid ‘40s to gather information for his canvases. DeCarava came to be known as a founder of fine art photography separate from the “Social documentary” style of his predecessors who documented African-American life. He was the first black photographer to receive a Guggenheim Grant.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art
The exhibition “New York 19” consists of eight vintage photographs by Roy DeCarava. DeCarava’s “New York 19” photographic series was used in a CBS television special broadcast on 20/11/60. Entitled Belafonte: New York 19, the musical special was a celebration of Postal Code 19, the city’s midtown melting pot of diversity, culture and the arts. In addition to Belafonte, the program featured jazz singer Gloria Lynne, John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Arthur Mitchell, among others, and used DeCarava’s images, some of which were made for the show and others which already existed. Roy DeCarava was born in Harlem in 1919. He began his career as a painter and printmaker and in the late ‘40s he began a series of scenes of his native Harlem, aiming for “A creative expression, the kind of penetrating insight and understanding of Negroes which I believe only a Negro photographer can interpret”. In 1955, he co-authored “The Sweet Flypaper of Life” with Langston Hughes focusing his lens on illustrating the human qualities of African American life in Harlem. His interest in education led him to found A Photographer’s Gallery (1955–57) out of his apartment in a brownstone at 48 West 85th Street, which tried to gain public recognition for photography as an art and a workshop for African American photographers in 1963. He also taught at the Cooper Union School of Art from 1969 to 1972. In 1975 he joined the faculty at Hunter College. He is perhaps best known for his portraits of jazz musicians, which capture the essence of such legends as Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holiday in the midst of performances. These portraits, which he began in 1956, were shown in 1983 in an exhibit at Harlem’s Studio Museum. Many of DeCarava’s jazz portraits were published in “The Sound I Saw: Improvisation on a Jazz Theme” (2001).
Info: Anders Wahlstedt Fine Art, 40 East 63rd Street, 3rd Floor, New York, Duration: 31/3-14/5/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 11:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-15:00, www.wahlstedtart.com
