Roy DeCarava (1919-2009)

Born in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood, Roy DeCarava (1919-2009) came of age during the Harlem Renaissance and became well known for his portraits of musicians including Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and John Coltrane. DeCarava was the first African-American photographer to win a Guggenheim Fellowship, and this fellowship enabled him to spend a year documenting Harlem life, producing hundreds of black and white photographs – several of which were included by Edward Steichen in the Museum of Modern Art’s seminal 1955 exhibition, “The Family of Man.”