The sweet flypaper of life pdf

This renowned, life-affirming collaboration between artist Roy DeCarava and writer Langston Hughes honors in words and pictures what the authors saw, knew, and felt deeply about life in their city.

As she guides the reader through the lives of those around her, we imagine the babies born, families in struggle, children yet flourishing. The ruminations go beyond the limit of simple observation and contend with deeper meanings to reveal these individuals as subjects worthy of art.

The one-year grant enabled DeCarava to focus full time on the photography he had been creating since the mids and to complete a project that would eventually result in The Sweet Flypaper of Life, a moving, photo-poetic work in the urban setting of Harlem. DeCarava compiled a set of images from which Hughes chose and adeptly supplied a fictive narration, reflecting on life in that city-within-a-city.

First published in , the book, widely considered a classic of photographic visual literature, was reprinted by public demand several times. This fourth printing, the Heritage Edition, is the first authorized English-language edition since and includes an afterword by Sherry Turner DeCarava tracing the history and ongoing importance of this book. A collection of photographs depicting everyday life in New York City by the first Black artist to receive a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

The 94 African American photographers whose works appear in this volume, have used their equipment as tools of social commentary and personal and artistic exploration, bearing witness to the changes in American society over the past 50 years. A collection of diverse photographs from black female photographers from the mids to the present captures important aspects of African American history and reveals the talent and courage of a small band of pioneering artists.

October 4, History. An edition of The sweet flypaper of life This edition was published in by Hill and Wang in New York.

Written in English — 96 pages. Not in Library. Libraries near you: WorldCat. The sweet flypaper of life , Howard University Press. The sweet flypaper of life , Hill and Wang. The sweet flypaper of life , Simon and Schuster. The sweet flypaper of life First published in Subjects African Americans , Afro-Americans , Description and travel , Pictorial works , Views , African americans, new york state , new york , New york n.

Places Harlem New York, N. Times s America. Edition Notes Genre Pictorial works. Classifications Dewey Decimal Class N3 D4 Jun 08, Naori rated it it was amazing Shelves: african-american-lit , poetry-spoken-word , favorites , art. I kept sliding the pages between my fingers, making sure nothing was stuck together - it was that good. This is what happened: Roy DeCarava took completely random and stunning pictures of people all over Harlem.

Langston Hughes looked at them and said, I can tell this story. He arranged them in a way that was loosely from the perspective of an elderly grandmother Mary Bradley, but just maintained the meaning behind each shot, the spirit of Harlem - and it worked, it worked brilliantly This book is a song, it is a soul, one that I will return to again and again, and one whose images are vividly etched in my mind as I am writing this.

This book is singular and if I could pass it out on street corners to everyone who walked by I would. View all 4 comments. Oct 31, Jon Nakapalau rated it it was amazing Shelves: poetry , favorites , classics.

What a find! The poetry of Langston Hughes and the photos of Roy DeCarava weave a story of living life in the moment: the good and the bad balanced out on the scale of our days - highly recommended! Oct 31, Comfortably rated it it was amazing. If i had the chance to rate this book with 10 stars, i would put Such an amazing work. Roy DeCarava meets Langston Hughes and the result is simply extraordinary.!

I stumbled across it as I was reclassifying some books in the library. Because the photographs dominate the book rather than the text, it reads quickly.

Mar 30, Audra rated it it was amazing Shelves: authors-of-color. I have always loved Langston Hughes. To read his words coupled with moving photos of Harlem by Roy DeCarava, I can almost feel what it was like to have my feet "caught in in the sweet flypaper of life" in Harlem.

I loved each and every photo and the messages that were so subtle you'd miss them if you didn't stop and take in every detail of each picture. This is a short book, but you can get lost in the photos wondering about the lives of the people in them.

Absolutely beautiful. Jun 05, Storytime rated it it was amazing. I love this book. I can now say I have a favorite book. Why has this book gone out of print? It is The Masterpiece. View 1 comment. Jun 16, Jayna rated it it was amazing.

A wonderful book of photographs. This book came out in and was accompanied with a text by poet Langston Hughes. I first read about this book in a book of highlights from MOMA. Here's a quote from that book: "The book has been praised as a sympathetic view of everyday life in Harlem, New York, drawn by two members of the community rather than by visiting sociologists or reformers.

The praise is reasonable as far as it goes, but it fails to note the originality of the photographs DeCarava mad A wonderful book of photographs. The praise is reasonable as far as it goes, but it fails to note the originality of the photographs DeCarava made behind closed doors, which describe his friends with the same gentleness and warmth they accord to each other. No photographer before him had pictured domestic life--black or white--with such unsentimental tenderness.

I always been all tangled up in life--which ain't always so sanitary as we might like it to be. I was able to have this book borrowed from my library via inter-library loan. Dec 03, Denise rated it it was amazing. The story is about a woman in Harlem reflecting on her family and community. What's amazing is that the photos came before the story. Hughes wrote a story around the photos. And the photos are museum-quality. The book is small.

It's only 5x7 inches. I wish it was larger like a coffee table book or a child's picture book. Then the beauty and detail of the photos cou Basically, this is a short story by Langston Hughes, prominent Harlem Renaissance author, illustrated by the photos of Roy DeCarava.

Then the beauty and detail of the photos could really be enjoyed. Wonderful monochrome s-Harlem street photographs by Roy DeCarava, to which Langston Hughes added an introduction and narrative text. Hughes's narrative is from the point of view of a not-having-allowed herself-to-be-marginalised woman as she gazes through her apartment window.

A book of delights in many ways. It takes about an hour to read the whole book, but I probably could have spent a lot more time taking in all of DeCarava's images. I think Hughes' poetry definitely sets this collection apart from other photography books. Even though the "characters" are fictional and the book is only a hundred pages, they are fully fleshed out and leap off of the pages.

The only negative is my co It takes about an hour to read the whole book, but I probably could have spent a lot more time taking in all of DeCarava's images. The only negative is my copy is small, so I really wish I could see DeCarava's images better.