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Roy DeCarava

Billie at Braddocks (Billie Holiday), New York, 1952

Description

Maker

  • Roy DeCarava, 1919-2009, American

Title

Billie at Braddocks (Billie Holiday), New York

Year

1952

Medium

Photogravure on paper

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • photogravure

Dimensions

29.2 x 20 cm (11 1/2 x 7 7/8 inches) (plate)

Identification

Edition

6/50

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Photographs

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

1990.019.8

About

In this sensitive portrait of the openly bisexual jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915–1959), Roy DeCarava explored the textural and atmospheric possibilities of rich, dark grays. His use of photogravure, a technique that produces moody, low-contrast images, lends a soft, almost painterly quality. During the 1950s and 1960s, DeCarava produced a number of images of African American jazz musicians in New York. Interested both in the artistic potential of photography and in candid depictions of black urban life, he created work informed by a deep awareness of African American culture and its complexities.

6/50
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Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Facing Artists

February 27 - July 31, 2009

For more than fifty years Roy DeCarava has photographed the people and places of New York, especially of Harlem. He is known for his luxurious use of the dark
tonal range as well as his compassion for his subjects, both evident in this portrait of legendary singer Billie Holiday (American, 1915–1959) taken at Harlem’s
Braddock Hotel. Jazz musicians were frequent subjects. In his 2001 book The Sound I Saw: Improvisation on a Jazz Theme he writes, “Jazz to me is the musical expression of subjective individual emotions by particular individuals in their own unique way.”

Roy DeCarava

January 11 - March 31, 2002

Related

No Image Available

Roy DeCarava

portfolio (group of works); photograph

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Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Billie at Braddocks (Billie Holiday), New York with the accession number of 1990.019.8. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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