Two Women, Manikin’s Hand, New York

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Copied Roy DeCarava, Two Women, Manikin's Hand, New York, 1950, printed 1982, gelatin silver print, sheet: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Henry L. Milmore, 1992.15.2, © 1982, Roy DeCarava

Artwork Details

Title
Two Women, Manikin’s Hand, New York
Artist
Date
1950, printed 1982
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.5 cm.)
Copyright
© 1982, Roy DeCarava
Credit Line
Museum purchase made possible by Henry L. Milmore
Mediums Description
gelatin silver print
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group
  • Cityscape — New York
  • Dress — accessory — scarf
  • Figure group — female — bust
  • Figure female — fragment — hand
Object Number
1992.15.2
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1992.15.2

Artwork Description

DeCarava once wrote that he wanted to photograph “not the famous and well known, but the unknown and unnamed, thus revealing the roots from which spring the greatness of all human beings.” An intensely personal quality distinguishes DeCarava’s photographs, yet his subjects are never removed from the environments they inhabit. DeCarava was born in Harlem in 1919. In 1952, he became the first African American photographer to win a Guggenheim Fellowship. Temporarily freed from financial concerns, DeCarava continued taking pictures of the people of Harlem “morning, noon, and night, at work, going to work, coming home from work, at play.”


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012