Roy DeCarava Quotes

• There were no black images of dignity, no images of beautiful black people. There was this big hole. I tried to fill it.

  Roy DeCarava

  Beautiful, People, Black

  "Roy DeCarava obituary" by Richard Williams, www.theguardian.com. November 1, 2009.

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• You should be able to look at me and see my work. You should be able to look at my work and see me.

  Roy DeCarava

  Looks, Able, Should

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• I don't really think that the technique really determines the veracity of the image. It's what the image does to the viewer that determines whether it's right or wrong.

  Roy DeCarava

  Thinking, Technique, Doe

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• But if it's true it's beautiful. Truth is beautiful. And so my whole work is about what amounts to a reverence for life itself.

  Roy DeCarava

  Beautiful, Reverence For Life, Truth Is

  "Roy DeCarava, Harlem Insider Who Photographed Ordinary Life, Dies at 89" by Randy Kennedy, www.nytimes.com. October 28, 2009.

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• The artist creates the material that we look back upon as part of history.

  Roy DeCarava

  Artist, Looks, Materials

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• A photograph is a photograph, a picture, an image, an illusion complete within itself, depending neither on words, reproductive processes or anything else for its life, its reason for being.

  Roy DeCarava

  Illusion, Reason, Photograph

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• Artists are a very important part of our society because they make a great contribution to our values. The artist creates a value system that we all grow up on, whether we know it or not.

  Roy DeCarava

  Growing Up, Artist, Important

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• It's the not the subject that interests me as much as my perception of the subject.

  Roy DeCarava

  Perception, Interest, Subjects

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• My photographs are subjective and personal-they’r e intended to be accessible, to relate to people’s lives... People-their well-being and survival-are the crux of what’s important to me.

  Roy DeCarava

  People, Survival, Important

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• I try to photograph things that are near to me because I work best among things I know. I'm not concerned with startling anyone or discovering new forms; formal qualities are only tools to help state my message.

  Roy DeCarava

  Trying, Quality, Tools

  Roy DeCarava, Peter Galassi, Sherry Turner DeCarava, Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) (1996). “Roy DeCarava, a retrospective”, ABRAMS

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• The artist is a kind of a seer and by nature he is optimistic because he believes in the future.

  Roy DeCarava

  Believe, Optimistic, Artist

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• For me, photography must be visual, rather than intellectual and ideological.

  Roy DeCarava

  Photography, Intellectual, Visuals

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• Seeing your work on the wall is like the ultimate thing that can happen.

  Roy DeCarava

  Wall, Happens, Ultimate

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