CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/16/2018

Roy DeCarava's Black abstraction in Soul of a Nation

"Couple walking" (1979), by Roy DeCarava, is reproduced from Soul of a Nation, on view at the Brooklyn Museum. In the chapter "Notes on Black Abstraction," Mark Godfrey notes that DeCarava photographed many of his subjects from behind or on the side. "While he was taking these photographs, William Eggleston, Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand were being feted for the sharpness of their portraits: indeed it is impossible to call to mind their work without remembering the idiosyncratic facial expressions of the subjects. So why did DeCarava photograph his subjects from behind? Arguably his intention was to eschew character studies and instead to photograph abstract concepts: community, resilience, family love and tenderness, romance, dignity, elegance. These images constitute [a] kind of Black abstraction."