Annotated Bib #3 Lyndsay Tipton

Observation: The setting of this photograph seems to be a city street. Cars are lined up, parked along the curb and the houses are row homes, with children sitting and standing on their stoops. There are children out in the street as well. One of them is riding a bike. Another boy, who appears to be somewhat older has opened the fire hydrant and is spraying the street with water, which is now flooded. Some other young children are playing and standing in the water. There are no adults in the street. It looks as though a few of the figures on the stoops could be adults, but they are off in the background, not directly involved in what is happening in the photograph. 

Inference: The reason that I chose this photograph is because it is taken from DeCarava's book (which he did with Langston Hughes) entitled, The Sweet Flypaper of Life. One of DeCarava's aims as a photographer was to capture black life in a way that hadn't been done before: from within the community. He did not aim to have any political or sociological points in his art. What he wanted to do was showcase the domestic, every day life of the black American. This photograph as a single piece of art can definitely show a part of what it was to be an African American child in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance. There wasn't any extra money for toys or outings or anything like that. Kids had to have fun where and when they could, just like these children in the photograph who have found a moment of fun in the water covered streets. It also shows what the areas that blacks might be living in looked like. Although they are not necessarily the focus of this photo, the row homes are included as well as a few cars. We, as viewers, could potentially use these as a reference point for the types of homes or cars that African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance may have had. The Sweet Flypaper of Life is what really interested me, however. DeCarava teamed his photographs with Langston Hughes' words to tell the story of a black woman living in Harlem. Through her story, they were able to tell the every day life stories of so many black individuals from the time period. Rather than Hughes simply writing a book or DeCarava simply snapping a few photos, they were able to combine their talents to truly show a side of black life that had not previously been captured before. 

Citations:

"Black-And-White Black America." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.

Kennedy, Randy. "Roy DeCarava, Harlem Insider Who Photographed Ordinary Life, Dies at 89." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2009. Web. 28 Sept. 2015.