#FallenThroughTheCracks - Roy Rudolph DeCarava was born on December 9, 1919, in Harlem, New York. He achieved early acclaim for his photography by initially focusing on capturing the lives of African Americans and jazz musicians within the communities where he resided and worked. His career spanned nearly six decades and solidified his status as a pioneer in the realm of black-and-white fine art photography. DeCarava championed an approach to the medium rooted in individual, subjective creative sensibility, distinct from the "social documentary" style prevalent among his predecessors.
DeCarava's formative years coincided with the Harlem Renaissance, a period of flourishing artistic achievement among African Americans across various domains. Although he initially employed photography for recording and reference purposes, his deep passion for the medium eventually led him to devote all his time to it. He elevated black-and-white silver gelatin photography to a distinct art form in its own right.
In 1942, DeCarava was drafted into the Army and experienced intense racism while stationed in the Jim Crow South. This led to a breakdown, with DeCarava recalling that the only non-segregated place in the army was the psychiatric ward. DeCarava had over fifteen solo exhibitions and became the first African-American photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, which enabled him to capture his community and New York City for a year, expressing his early creative impressions through black and white silver gelatin photography.
Throughout his career, DeCarava authored five published art books, including "The Sound I Saw" and "The Sweet Flypaper of Life." His work graced the covers of several record albums, including Miles Davis' "Porgy and Bess" and Mahalia Jackson's "Bless this House." DeCarava received honorary degrees from esteemed institutions such as the Rhode Island School of Design and the Maryland Institute of Art, acknowledging his profound contributions to American art. In 2006, he was honored with the National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest artistic accolade bestowed by the United States Government.
Throughout his career, DeCarava consistently emphasized his commitment to creating a visually independent subject of color. He rejected the label of a "documentary photographer" and stressed his modernist aim to achieve "creative expression" rather than a "documentary or sociological statement." Although he did not work in cinema, his upbringing during the era of black-and-white filmmaking influenced his photographic aesthetic, making it a natural part of his visual expression. Roy DeCarava died on October 27, 2009, at the age of 89.
(Text paraphrased from Wikipedia. All Images are the property of the copyright owners. This clip is for educational purposes.)
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