1992.40
Child in Window, Clothesline, New York
Artist
Roy Rudolph DeCarava
(New York City, New York, 12/9/1919 - 10/27/2009, Brooklyn, New York)
Title
Child in Window, Clothesline, New York
Creation Date
1950
Century
20th century
Dimensions
14 in. x 8 5/8 in. (35.56 cm. x 21.91 cm.)
Classification
Photographs
Creation Place
North America, United States, New York
Medium and Support
gelatin silver print
Credit Line
Gift of Samuella Shain
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
1992.40
Drawing attention through his title to a child, whose face presses against the glass of the window near the center of the image, Roy DeCarava reveals a subtle, but powerful presence. With his keen powers of observation, DeCarava captures the dignified aspiration of the youth, over whose small frame bright white laundry shines out like a banner. A native of Harlem, DeCarava, originally trained as a painter, turning to photography in the late 1940s. In 1952, he became the first African American photographer to earn a Guggenheim fellowship, determined to express the lived experience of black Americans. Reflecting later in life upon his career, DeCarava mused: “It doesn’t have to be pretty to be true. But if it’s true it’s beautiful. Truth is beautiful. And so my whole work is about what amounts to a reverence for life itself.”
Additional Media
overall with border