Writing recently in the New York Times Magazine, Teju Cole in his “A True Picture of Black Skin”, explores how Roy DeCarava in his lifetime captured something very special about black subjects and their lives in his photographs. DeCarava, who passed away in 2009, worked for almost 60 years and has been quoted with thoughts like these:
“Going outside and meeting the challenge of taking what is and making it yours, that’s what photography does for me, It’s not the subject that interests me as much as my perception of the subject.”
“A photograph is a photograph, a picture, an image, an illusion complete within itself, depending neither on words, reproductive processes or anything else for its life, its reason for being.“
In addition to the photos and slideshow that accompany Teju Cole’s piece, you can find more of DeCarava’s work in the New York Times LENS blog, at decarava.org and throughout the Web, just a Google search away.