The death of photographer Roy DeCarava was announced Wednesday, October 28. He is remembered fondly as a pioneer of black and white photography, as a husband, and as a father.

DeCarava discovered photography first as a tool to document his work in printmaking, but embraced and carefully harnessed the medium when he realized its potential to make moments his own by capturing his perception of each of his scenes. He went on to establish himself as a postwar street photographer of daily life, specifically African-American life in New York. DeCarava was not the first photographer to shoot Harlem, but his commitment to interpreting it in artistic terms sets him apart from the history of social documentary established there.

As he wrote in his application for a Guggenheim fellowship, (via NYT Arts Beat), DeCarava did not work to make “a documentary or sociological statement.” Rather, he strived for “a creative expression, the kind of penetrating insight and understanding of Negroes” which he believed he could interpret. DeCarava was the first African American to win that Guggenheim fellowship. He thought that photography was not only a way of seeing and capturing the world, but also a kind of poetry, evidenced by the distinct darkness of his images – both from the lighting of each scene, and his development and print processes.

Through his work in photography and his interest in particular cultures, DeCarava associated with many other well-known cultural figures. Edward Steichen was a mentor to and collector of DeCarava’s work, eventually purchasing three photographs for the MoMA collection. Langston Hughes was a colleague and friend and wrote text for DeCarava’s book, The Sweet Flypaper of Life. Jazz greats like Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington, and Billie Holliday were photographic subjects for DeCarava’s study of the New York jazz world.

Read the NYT obituary and see a slide show of DeCarava’s work.

Watch a 1996 interview with Charlie Rose.

See DeCarava images in the MoCP collection.