c. 1965
(American, 1935–2002)
Gelatin silver print
Image: 29.4 x 21.4 cm (11 9/16 x 8 7/16 in.); Paper: 35.2 x 28 cm (13 7/8 x 11 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund 2016.273
A goal for Louis Draper was to show blacks participating in universal human experience.
Raised in segregated Richmond, Virginia, Louis Draper moved to New York City to study photography in 1957. Shooting mostly in Harlem and around New York, he created reflective and penetrating portraits, compelling street photography, and, later in life, abstractions. Depicting black skin was difficult because all film was balanced for white complexions. Draper often used reflective highlights to give the black face and body dimensionality and texture.
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