Roy DeCarava

Roy DeCarava (1919-2009) was an American photographer who grew up in Harlem and spent most of his career photographing black and white images of the people, places, and events there. He was mainly a people photographer. He held odd jobs for most of his career as a photographer, eventually joining the faculty of Hunter College in New York.

DeCarava originally studied to become a painter, and considered his photographs as art, not street photography. He first achieved celebrity after collaborating with poet Langston Hughes on a book about Harlem called "Sweet Flypaper of Life" in 1955. In addition to the people and places of Harlem, he also photographed jazz musicians, garment workers in New York, and civil rights protests. DeCarava had a real passion for his subjects, which comes out in his work. He focused on artistic imagery, and his photographs were known for their rich tones and careful use of light. Like Robert Benjamin, he used only ambient light in his images.

DeCarava tried working as a photographer for Sports Illustrated and doing other types of commercial work, but felt he had to compromise his artistic principles too much, becoming a member of the faculty at Hunter College in New York in 1975.