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The Sweet Flypaper of Life

The Sweet Flypaper of Life is a short book with photographs from Roy DeCarava with captions by author Langston Hughes. The original publication in November 1955 included 140 photographs over 98 pages. DeCarava became the first black person to receive the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and “even by a generous estimate of conventional standards DeCarava’s output in 1952 and 1953 was enormous.” DeCarava sought publication for his photographs from a variety of New York City publishers who all turned him away except for Simon and Schuster who agreed on the condition that Langston Hughes write accompanying text. DeCarava’s difficulty in this area echoes the problems faced by many other black photographers during the 1940’s and 1950’s who struggled to get published in the white controlled press. Hughes agreed and requested that DeCarava not inform him of the identities of the figures in his photographs so he could choose the best photographs to suit a narrative of his creation taking place in Harlem.

The resulting book told the story of Sister Mary Bradley and her immediate and extended family who all live in Harlem. Although the story was fictional, Hughes’ narrative fooled contemporary critics who thought the story was real. In fact, Hughes and DeCarava sought to create a uniquely subjective work that counteracted the objective documentary style of photography popularized in part by the Farm Security Administration’s photography program. Some of DeCarava’s photographs from The Sweet Flypaper of Life were also used in Edward Steichen’s The Family of Man exhibit where DeCarava also had reservations as to the individualistic nature in which his images were framed.

DeCarava’s proposal for the Guggenheim Fellowship stated, “I want to photograph Harlem through the Negro people… I do not want a documentary or sociological statement, I want a creative statement.” Hughes agreed with that sentiment although DeCarava disagreed with, “the manner in which Hughes’s text, as well as his selection and sequencing, anchored his photographs.” Whether due to cost or due to Hughes’ preference, the book was published in an uncommonly small size for a photography book so that it could fit into one’s pocket. As a result, many of DeCarava’s photographers in the book are rendered small and hard to see due to low cost paper.