“Kids God Bless”, From Belafonte—New York 19, c. 1960
Vintage gelatin silver print, on period mount
Image size: 13 ½ in × 19 ¾ in
Framed size: 24 ½ × 30 in
Titled in pencil on mount verso
March 18, 2024
This photograph is a poetic example of the humanism that Roy DeCarava brought to his depictions of the lives of Black residents in Manhattan. The joyous lyricism of the sprinting children speaks to the hope for greater freedom that Black children of that era embodied.
DeCarava came of age during the Harlem Renaissance and forged a particularly deep connection with musicians like Duke Ellington and Harry Belafonte. DeCarava collaborated on more than one occasion with Belafonte as the singers’s star rose, and this print was made for a TV special that Belafonte produced for CBS in 1960. The special was called "New York 19” and was conceived by the singer and civil rights activist as a celebration of life in the mid-Manhattan neighborhoods around the theater district (identified by US postal code 19), an area which—before residents were displaced by urban renewal—was a multiracial, blue-collar enclave. Photographs like this one were used to depict daily life there, and were displayed on-screen between musical performances. Belafonte’s specials were credited as the first Black televisions programs in the US, which makes a print like this a truly historic document.
By 1960 Roy DeCarava was firmly established as a photographer of note. In 1952 he became the first Black photographer to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, and his photographs had gained the attention of Edward Steichen, then director of MoMA’s Department of Photography. Steichen exhibited DeCarava’s photographs in MoMA’s celebrated 1955 exhibition The Family of Man, which strove to inspire viewers to recognize common humanity, across races and cultures.
