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LOUIS H. DRAPER (1935 - 2002)
Boy and H, Harlem (Stickball)
.
Silver print, 1960. 216x324 mm; 8
1
/
2
x12
3
/
4
inches. Artist’s estate ink stamp, verso.
This photograph first appeared in
Ebony
magazine in 1960 in the article
A Salute
to Black Photographers
.We believe this is the first photograph by this artist to come
to auction.
In 1958, Louis H. Draper moved from his hometown, Richmond,Virginia to Harlem
to study photography. He photographed the streets of NewYork with a compassionate
and artistic eye for the social conditions of the time. He also took portraits of such
notables as Langston Hughes, Hughie Lee-Smith, Miles Davis, Malcolm X and
Katherine Dunham. In 1963, Draper was a founding member of the seminal black
photographer’s collective, Kamoinge, whose first director was Roy DeCarava. A
photograph by Draper illustrated the cover of an important July, 1966
Camera
magazine issue which featured images of Harlem by Kamoinge artists. His work
recently was included in the traveling museum exhibition
Posing Beauty
, and acquired
by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian National Museum of African
American History and Culture, andVirginia State University. Biography courtesy of
Nell Draper-Winston and the Louis Draper Archive.
[3,000/5,000]