The Easel

1st February 2022

Made In The Dark Room: Roy DeCarava Captures Mid-Century New York

Amah-Rose Abrams | The Quietus | 29th January 2022

After trying to be an artist, DeCarava switched to photography. Success came very quickly and his images of 1950’s Harlem – the Harlem that he knew – are still remarkably fresh. Jazz clubs were a favourite haunt and their smoky low-light ambience suited his aesthetic perfectly. If necessary, he processed his images to darken them – “not quite black and white, more tones of grey … His images can seem teased out of the darkness”. More images are here.

25th January 2022

Street cred – how Helen Levitt turned a cool eye on life in New York

Zakia Uddin | Apollo | 21st December 2021

One critic calls Levitt a “quiet genius” of modern photography. Her photographs of street life – most famously children – in New York’s poor neighbourhoods helped define street photography. First in black and white and then in colour – but always with a certain tenderness – her images show an eye for the off-kilter and portray the street as “above all, a theater and a battleground”. More images are here.

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