298 / 326
437
●
(PHOTOGRAPHY—NEGA-
TIVE IMAGES.) KNAFFL & BRO.
Photographs From Life.
Photographic
catalogue, 5
1
/
2
x 8 inches with 21 images
of African Americans photographed in
the most absurdly stereotyped poses, with
captions in dialect. Original decorative
stiff black wrappers printed white.
Knoxville, TN, circa 1890’s-1900
[400/600]
Knaffl & Brother, “High Class Photography”,
produced this series in 2 large formats; 16 x
20 and slightly smaller 9
1
/
2
x 12
1
/
2
inches,
un-mounted; slightly larger mounted and
framed. The poses are at best patronizing and
a worst painfully demeaning. They were
accomplished by hiring local blacks to pose. Joseph Knaffl (1861-1932) was a portrait photographer
who apprenticed with his noted Prussian brother-in-law Theodore M. Schleier. The series was appar-
ently a success, and the Knaffl Studio was in business until at least 1938. OCLC locates no copies of
this catalogue.
438
●
(PHOTOGRAPHY.) DECARAVA, ROY; AND LANGSTON HUGHES.
Sweet Flypaper of Life.
98 pages of photographs with text by Hughes interspersed;
non-authorial presentation on the front end-paper, but
SIGNED BY DE CARAVA ON THE
VERSO OF THE TITLE PAGE
. Small 8vo, original white cloth-backed boards.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955
[350/500]
Hughes and De Carava’s brilliant photographic collaboration, a tour of Harlem and its people.
438