Roy DeCarava: Light Break

Light Break presents the first survey since 1996 of photographer Roy DeCarava, an essential figure of American art and culture, whose poetry of vision re-forms urban life, labor, love, and jazz into the discovery of an intimate, emotional arc of transformation. Though DeCarava often refrained from public discussion of his work, this catalogue provides important background into determining factors of his aesthetic sensibilityhis traditional training in painting and printmaking as well as his philosophical undertakings. It brings the viewer to a consideration of contradictory precepts in DeCaravas work that seeks resolution through tonal and structural elements within the image. Light Break presents a wide-ranging selection of DeCaravas photographs accompanied by a preface by Zo Whitley, an American curator based in London, and features an introduction and essay by curator and art historian Sherry Turner DeCarava. Titled Celebration, Turner DeCaravas essay considers the artists singular poetic vision, his timeless portrayals of individuals and places, and his mastery of composition and photographic printmaking. As Whitley writes, In making photographs, as in life, DeCarava was patient. Possessing both a peerless self-awareness and acute observational skills, he knew intuitively when to wait and when to open the cameras shutter. In the dark room, he availed himself of these same attributes, moving with steady assurance to develop his prints so as to allow the full range of what he called his infinite scale of grey tonesoften realized at the deepest end of the spectrumto emerge slowly and fully. Published on the occasion of two concurrent exhibitions of DeCaravas work at David Zwirner New York in 2019, this exquisite volume showcases a dynamic range of images that underscore DeCaravas subtle mastery of tonal and spatial elements across a wide, fascinating array of subject.