Details

Title

Man Coming Up Subway Stairs

Artist/Maker

Roy DeCarava (American, 1919–2009)

Date

1957

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Contact the museum for more information

Credit

Purchase with funds from the H. B. and Doris Massey Charitable Trust

Accession #

1998.48

On View

Currently not on view

Roy DeCarava used a handheld 35mm camera to create an intensely lyrical and evocative chronicle of life in Harlem during the mid-1900s. Combing the sidewalks and public spaces of his home community, DeCarava made photographs that explored the relationship of the individual to the social environment during a fraught time in history. He often photographed in situations where there was little light, as in this scene of a man emerging from the subway, and carefully printed the murky images to elicit an unsentimental sensuousness.

Image Copyright

© The Estate of Roy DeCarava

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