PDF - Current Image & Data

Couple Dancing (Primary Title)

Roy DeCarava, American, 1919 - 2009 (Artist)

1956
American
Photographs
Works On Paper
Gelatin silver print
African American
Sheet: 13 13/16 × 10 15/16 in. (35.08 × 27.78 cm)
Image: 12 7/8 × 8 9/16 in. (32.7 × 21.75 cm)
Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.64 cm)
2016.132
Not on view

DeCarava often produced dark images. Here he used the painter’s technique of chiaroscuro to convey an atmospheric mood. The dancing figures seem to emerge from the background with just enough light to highlight their embrace. His photographic aesthetic, paired with his commitment to making sensitive and dignified images of African Americans, deeply influenced the next generation of black photographers in New York, including some members of the Kamoinge Workshop, who asked him to be the group’s first president in 1963.

Signed in black ink in lower right corner: "DECARAVA".
Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund
2018: "Truthful Witnessing: The Black Photographers Annual, Volume 3", VMFA, May 12 - October 14, 2018

"Working Together: Louis Draper and the Kamoinge Workshop", VMFA, February 1, 2020 - June 14, 2020
DeCarava, Roy, Peter Galassi, and Sherry T. DeCarava, "Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective", (New York: Museum of Modern Art Distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1996)

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