Hallway, Roy DeCarava. (Looking and Learning).

When we look at a work of art, we are presented with the artist's view--the sum of his or her experiences and attitudes expressed through the manipulation of artistic elements. To this we bring our own backgrounds. Roy DeCarava's black-and-white photograph entitled Hallway relies equally on the image provided by the artist and the unique perspectives we bring as viewers. This dialog between viewer and artist is the cornerstone of art appreciation.

The Work

Hallway immediately draws you in with its mysterious dark tones and the direct one-point perspective, which leads the eye down a passage to an even darker doorway. This device harkens back to Renaissance traditions. The dark stretch of the hall is only relieved by three pools of light reflecting onto the walls and by the ceiling fixture further along the corridor, which seems to shed no light. The hallway was shot with available light only (no flash), so a long exposure was needed. DeCarava's printing style emphasizes the softness of the light. His darkroom expertise realizes the somber but rich tonalities. The soft light of the dark but well-trodden hallway and the quietness of the composition contribute to how we experience the space. We feel the presence of people here, although none are pictured in the seemingly silent place.

DeCarava has successfully set us up. We are visually seduced by his manipulation of composition and the silver-print process and drawn into his dialog on perspective. The perspective creates a visual metaphor out of the mysterious passage. The vision poses questions. "What is this place; what are we doing here; where are we going?" The answers may form a social commentary or a metaphysical reflection on life, or whatever we bring to it. Each viewer provides his or her own narrative in response to the image.

Interpretation

The narrative in DeCarava's work is inextricably connected to the African-American cultural experience. Around the time this picture was made (1953), DeCarava had become the first African-American photographer to receive a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1952), and so was able to work full-time at his art. In his grant proposal he had stated that:

"I want to photograph Harlem through the Negro people. Morning, noon, night, at work, going to work, coming home from work, at play, in the streets, talking, kidding, laughing, in the home, in the playgrounds, in the schools, bars, stores, libraries, beauty parlors, churches, etc.... I want a creative expression, the kind of penetrating insight and understanding of Negroes, which I believe only a Negro photographer can interpret."

To accomplish this chronicling of African-American life, DeCarava captured the narrative through a metaphorical rather than a documentary approach. Compare his image of men dancing. The perspective and gestures of the figures provide many possible readings. His photography makes you think and feel all at once.

Selections from the body of work resulting from the Guggenheim Fellowship appeared in the landmark publication The Sweet Flypaper of Life (1955). The poet Langston Hughes chose the photographs and wrote the accompanying text. Although Hallway did not appear in the publication, it captures the intimate view of Harlem life portrayed there. In a discussion of Hallway, DeCarava relates:

"It's about a hallway that I know I must have experienced as a child. Not just one hallway; it was all the hallways that I grew up in. They were poor, poor tenements, badly lit, narrow and confining; hallways that had something to do with the economics of building for poor people. When I saw this particular hallway I went home on the subway and got my camera and tripod, which I rarely use. The ambience, the light in this hallway was so personal, so individual that any other kind of light would not have worked. It just brought back all these things that I had experienced as a child in those hallways. It was frightening, it was scary, it was spooky, as we would say when we were kids. And it was depressing. And yet, here I am an adult, years and ages and ages later, looking at the same hallway and finding it beautiful." (Peter Galassi, Roy DeCarava: A Retrospective. New York: 1996, p. 28.)

The Artist

DeCarava was born in Harlem in 1919 and has lived his entire life in New York City. He pursued painting and printmaking at Cooper Union, but left before completing his studies, citing cultural differences as an impediment to his ability to fit in. He finished his training at the now-famous Harlem Community Art Center, where he met such luminaries as Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, and Langston Hughes. DeCarava first used photography as a source of preliminary studies for his graphic art, but by the end of the 1940s, he was working solely in the photographic medium. The artist fondly remembers spending his weekends as a child at the black-and-white movies and believes that this experience drew him to photography.

DeCarava achieved early recognition for his work, selling his first photograph to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1950. He also made important contributions to the field as the owner and director of a Manhattan gallery called Photography Place (1955-57). This was among the earliest of photography galleries. DeCarava became a freelance photographer in 1958, and his images have since appeared in Sports Illustrated, Scientific American, Look, Time, and Life. From 1975, he taught at Hunter College, New York, and in 1989 became Distinguished Professor of Art at the City University in New York. A major exhibition of his work, organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, traveled throughout the United States from 1996 to 1999. A new book of his photographs, The Sound I Saw, has just been published, and he is still actively making photographs, exhibiting, and lecturing.

Activities

Elementary School

Ask students to look at the photograph Hallway and imagine what might be at the end of the corridor. After a discussion, ask students to write a descriptive paragraph explaining their ideas. Students will then share their stories with the class. The stories could be compiled into a book.

Middle School

Ask students to talk about DeCarava's methods of creating the illusion of space in this photograph. Discuss with students how the artist used the focal point, where all the elements converge, to engage the viewer. Invite students to step into the corridor outside their classroom. Using the medium of monochromatic collage, ask them to manipulate and transform that space to convey the culture of their school.

High School

Discuss how DeCarava used perspective to create both a sense of space and a dialog with the viewer. Ask students to take photographs that create a mood and imply a narrative. How can students create differing moods through creative use of light or shift in viewpoint? Hold an exhibition of the photographs and have visitors share their responses in a scrapbook. Invite an artist from your community to come critique the work.

James Montford is the coordinator of Community Programs at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. He can be reached at [e-mail].