Roy decarava photography biography samples

Photography has always been used as a powerful tool for social change.  From Frederick Douglass’ early adoption of photography a medium for countering negative images, to Sojourner Truth’s use of Cartes de Visites, W.E.B DuBois’ curated images at the Paris Exhibition of 1900, to James Van Der Zee’s documenting of the black middle class during the Harlem Renaissance, photography remains as an essential vehicle for shaping the narrative around black life.

But in the 1950’s African-Americans continued to fight negative imagery in the media and in the arts; we were caught in a double bind between struggling with our portrayal by outside forces and a photographic community’s slow acceptance of black photographers whose editorial eye was critical to visual storytelling.  Roy DeCarava’s work stands out as an example of a visionary style that was once again, ahead of its time; his relative obscurity in photographic circles early in his career is an unfortunate example of how his br

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This moment occurred during a memorial service for the children killed in a church in Birmingham Alabama in 1964. The photograph shows the dock coming out of the service at a church in Harlem. The dock were coming out of the church with faces so serious and so intense that I responded, and the image was made. — Roy DeCarava, 1990

Roy DeCarava, 5 Men, 1964 from the 12 Photographs portfolio

Roy DeCarava (1919–2009) began his artistic career as a painter and printmaker. To aid in his sketches, DeCarava used a hand-held camera; yet, within only a few years, he embraced photography with fervor, embarking on a career in the medium in the late 1940s that would take him into the 20th century. Born and raised in New York, DeCarava was Harlem’s photographer, as his honest and gripping photographs of the vagaries of modern life attest. Showcasing the urban environment in all of its gritty glory, DeCarava accentuated the daglig activities of African-American dock and women,

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Roy DeCarava Retrospective

“Bill & Son, 1962,” from ”Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective.”





Roy DeCarava doesn’t occupy a space, he blends with it. But to say that his approach to photography is stealth-like is to attribute to him a potential for discord that does him a disservice. With DeCarava there is no hidden agenda; his is a harmonious presence. In his carefully composed black-and-white images of the common man, we are allowed to see the colors of shadows. Rich and evocative, they render his subjects in what one essayist calls “a reflective state of grace.”



For close to 50 years, DeCarava has consistently explored one subject, New York City, primarily Harlem. It is this community that educated and nurtured him, and provided this only child with a surrogate family among whom he always found a place at the table. To paraphrase the poet, unlike the smoke that forgets the earth from which it ascends, DeCarava never betrayed or stray