Notes from Lorraine O’Grady Lecture
“that happens in sex…that happens in art..it’s right or it’s not right” (more…)
Roy DeCarava 1919-2009
how much like a tree
man is
with roots trunk and branches
reaching
into the sky to feel
the sun
-from “the sound i saw”
When studying with Roy DeCarava I often thought of him as my fairy grandfather. I had him as a professor a couple of years after my own grandfather had passed away and the look in his eyes had that same glimmer of knowledge that only age can bring to a wise man. I’m so tempted to attach “Graduation”, 1949, one of my favorite photographs of his to this post, but it just seems so wrong. He was a challenging professor for many. No color or digital photographs, and whatever reasons one had for making prints that were too high in contrast or too large in size were proven false. This was because he was not teaching Photography, but the act of seeing. In order to see with our eyes we must first see with our minds. We will say that he was a pioneer and a legend, but beyond those titles he was himself and his work encompasses all that can be said.
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