Sale 2458 - Art & Storytelling: Photographs & Photobooks, October 19, 2017

156 c ROY DECARAVA (1919-2009) Dancers.   Silver print, the image measuring 12 3 / 4 x8 1 / 2 inches (32.4x21.6 cm.), the sheet 14x11 inches (35.6x27.9 cm.), with DeCarava’s block- lettered signature, date, and copyright, in pencil, on recto. 1956; printed 1981 [15,000/25,000] From the Witkin Gallery, New York, New York; to the Collection of John Bennette, in 1992. Roy DeCarava’s photographs frequently drew on his urban experiences in Harlem, where he lived for many years. Both a painter and a printmaker, DeCarava began exploring photography in the late 1940s, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1952. Subsequently, he collaborated with Langston Hughes on The Sweet Flypaper of Life , which was published in 1955. A master image-maker and skilled photographic printer, DeCarava’s photographs were created with a sophisticated, nuanced eye. His accomplished analogue darkroom work resulted in stunning prints that capture the subtleties of a picture’s mid-range or shadow tones along with its highlights. He remains an important crossover figure who was the subject of a retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1996. Galassi, Roy DeCarava:A Retrospective (Museum of Modern Art), p. 211.