12 Photographs

Roy DeCarava

This Portfolio was published by Renaissance Press. The Photogravure Plates were made by Paul M. Taylor. These dust-grained photogra­vures have been hand printed on Arches by Gary Nelson at Chestnut Street Press. The prints are signed and numbered by the artist.

This edition is limited to sixty-two sets which are numbered as follows: Edition size 50, numbered 1/50-50/50; one Bon A Tirer, BAT; one Printer's Proof, PP; six Artists' Proofs, AP I/VI-VI/VI; four Hors Commerce I/IV-IV/IV. The plates were destroyed by Roy DeCarava and two cancellation sets were printed.

Specifications / Credits

Title: 12 Photographs
Artist: Roy DeCarava
Year: 1988 (photogravure edition)
Process: Hand-pulled photogravure
Photogravures: Paul Taylor
Edition: 50 (CP 2/2)
Portfolio: 23 x 19 in
Collection: Paul Taylor

Images in the Portfolio:

  1. Billie at Braddock's, New York, 1952

  2. Night Feeding, Brooklyn, 1973

  3. Man in Window, New York, 1978

  4. Couple Dancing, New York, 1956

  5. Dancers, New York, 1956

  6. Milt Jackson, 1956

  7. Paul Robeson, New York, 1950

  8. Fourth of July, Prospect Park, 1978

  9. Across the Street, Night, Brooklyn, 1978

  10. Four Men, New York, 1965

  11. Horace Silver, New York, 1956

  12. Lingerie, New York, 1950

All Prints:

Printed on Arches Cover White
Paper Size 22 x 18 inches
Plate size 11 x 8 inches
Printed by Clary Nelson at Renaissance Press
Published by Renaissance Press, Ashuelot, New Hampshire

Roy DeCarava (1919–2009, USA) is one of the most important artists ever to have worked with photography. Coming of age during the Harlem renaissance and initially working as a painter, in the mid 1940s DeCarava switched exclusively to photography as his primary means of artistic expression. He worked with a handheld 35mm camera, which enabled him to move easily throughout the city, embodying a freedom not dissimilar to Henri Cartier-Bresson’s model of the ambulatory observer, although with a more specific intention to understand his relationship to the subject. He used his camera to produce striking studies of everyday black life in Harlem, capturing the varied textures of the neighborhood and the creative efflorescence of the Harlem Renaissance. Resisting explicit politicization, DeCarava used photography to counter what he described as “black people...not being portrayed in a serious and artistic way”. Unlike most photographers of his day, DeCarava developed and printed his own images himself, enabling him to create over time a distinct and enduring aesthetic approach. He was successful in his imagery from the beginning, and his work has widely influenced that of contemporary artists. DeCarava became the first African American photographer to win a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. The one-year grant enabled DeCarava to focus full time on photography and to complete a project that would eventually result in The Sweet Flypaper of Life, a moving, photo-poetic work in the urban setting of Harlem.