Roy DeCarava

Roy DeCarava (December 9, 1919 – October 27, 2009) was an American photographer. In one of the longest careers in American photography, DeCarava produced 5 major books, including museum catalogues and photographic art books, including The Sound I Saw, The Sweet Flypaper of Life and retrospective surveys from the Friends of Photography and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The subject of at least 15 solo exhibitions, DeCarava was known as the first African American photographer to win a Guggenheim Fellowship and was awarded a National Medal of Arts in 2006.

Biography

Roy DeCarava was born in New York City in 1919, the only child of Elfreda Ferguson. They lived in many areas of New York City, including Harlem. DeCarava graduated from Chelsea Vocational High School NYC and was admitted to Cooper Union but left after two years to attend classes at the Harlem Art Center. Deciding early on that he wanted to be an artist, he began working as a painter and illustrator. He took up photography as an aide to his artwork. Increasingly, he was drawn to photography full time by “the directness of the medium,” and soon found himself communicating the themes and ideas of his paintings photographically. In 1955, DeCarava opened a New York City gallery pioneering an effort to win recognition for photography as a fine art; the gallery remained open for over two years.

At this time many still regarded photography as a documentary medium. DeCarava, however, never considered himself part of this photojournalistic tradition. Rather his work is creative, personal and hearkens to the intense visual imagery and tones that influenced him as an early painter and graphic artist. He cherished the people, places, and events in his pictures and early on developed the means to express his esthetic control. He photographed using only ambient light, printed each image by hand, coaxing a full range of gray tonalities out of limited ambiance.

The strong lines, extraordinarily rich tonality, and exploration of light in his work charge his photographs and harken back to his training in classical arts painting, always illuminating never obliterating a powerful human presence.

DeCarava worked to support himself at several commercial jobs including as an editorial photographer, but always kept his artwork strictly separate from his artistic work. Despite his successes DeCarava felt very strongly about maintaining the artistic integrity of his images, and eventually gave up magazine and freelance work in order to take on a job teaching at Hunter College. He was named Distinguished Professor of Art in 1994. In 2001, he received a Gold Medal in Photography from the National Arts Club. In 2006, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest award given to artists by the United States Government.

Roy DeCarava died in 2009. He is survived by Leslie (1943) and Vincent (1947) and by his current wife of 39 years, art historian and DeCarava Archives director Sherry Turner DeCarava, as well as their three adult children Susan, Wendy, and Laura.

Works consulted

• [The Sound I Saw][1]. Phaidon Press, 2000
• Roy DeCarava, A Retrospective. Museum of Modern Art New York, NY 1996
• Roy DeCarava, Photographs. Edited by James Alinder, Friends of Photography, 1981.
• Ralph Eugene Meatyard. published by International Center of Photography, 2004, Introduction by Cynthia Young.
• [Thumbnail View] [2]. Luna.

External links

• The Sherry and Roy DeCarava Archives
• Conversations with Roy DeCarava. A film by Carroll Parrot Blue. 1984.
• Masters of Photography: Roy DeCarava
• Museum of Contemporary Photography: Roy DeCarava
• "Roy DeCarava, Harlem Insider Who Photographed Ordinary Life, Dies at 89," New York Times, October 28, 2009
• ROY DeCARAVA Tribute