The Sweet Flypaper of Life

by Roy DeCarava (Photographer), Langston Hughes

Photos by DeCarava, poetry by Hughes, set in a Harlem neighborhood, told from a woman’s point of view as she looks through her apartment window.

Genres: Poetry, Photography, Art, Fiction, Classics, Race, African American

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1955

About the author

Over the course of six decades, American artist Roy DeCarava (1919–2009) produced a singular collection of black-and-white photographs of modern life that combine formal acuity with an intimate and deeply human treatment of his subject matter. Grounded by a unified theory of the visual plane, his work displays a subtle mastery of tonal and spatial elements and devotion to the medium of photography as a means of artistic expression.

Reviews

[LaDonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟➕➕➕

5 stars EASILY...

What an amazing concept for a book!!

Take unconnected, everyday photos and connect them through the words of one woman. A fictional character who tells the stories of the lives of those living in Harlem during the mid 1950s. Although I am reading this for the first time, almost 65 years after it was first published, the tale is still very relatable. People and families stuck in ruts, the flypaper, as they try to find ways to get through their repetitive mundane existences. However, the sweetness comes in when they can find those moments that fill them with joy. The dad who falls asleep while rocking his child to sleep. The man who can find peace while sitting under a tree in a park. The couple who hosts a weekly get-together for family members and neighbors. The collaboration between DeCarava and Hughes is one that will continue to resonate with me long after this moment.

Shout out to my GR friend, Naori. After reading this book for myself, it is something that we should all make time for.

[Naori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could go back to the first moment I opened this book, to all the minutes and seconds and breaths I took during it; I wish I’d been cognizant enough to know and to tell myself that you only get to have this experience once - the first time, that aliveness that comes when you take in something truly extraordinary...the first time. I can’t go back, but I can tell all of you that if you get your hands on a copy of this, sip it slowly. I kept sliding the pages between my fingers, making sure nothing was stuck together - it was that good. Don’t come at this from a literary criticism standpoint, a historical standpoint, a critical art standpoint, or anything else at all. 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.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 - even as we try to take the time to live in the here and now - highly recommended!

[Comfortably · Rating 5 out of 5]

If i had the chance to rate this book with 10 stars, i would put 11.
Such an amazing work. Roy DeCarava meets Langston Hughes and the result is simply extraordinary.!

[Rashonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Tanja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read for a class
It's not a lot of text, since the photographs take up a majority of space, but wow are they stunning! A true window into Harlem of the 40s and 50s, with so much soul, perfectly accompanied by Langston Hughes's writing. There is a lot of nuance in the subtext on race in America, that requires a bit of a closer reading (and for me, reading academic texts on this book). I even used it in an essay on postcolonial theory in phototexts.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book in which Langston Hughes weaves a story of African Americans living in Harlem featuring the photographs of Roy DeCarava. 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.

[Audra · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Thomas Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Miss Mary, I hear tell you's down--but with no intentions of going out."
I said, "You're right! I done got my feet caught in the sweet flypaper of life--and I'll be dogged if I want to get loose." p. 92.

Photos by Roy DeCarava, from an exhibition of his work of the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Words by Langston Hughes, a bit of fictional narrative to go with the pictures.
1955. Edition 2018.

[Daniel Grenier · Rating 5 out of 5]

On se sent choyé de pouvoir entrer dans ce court monologue imagé sur la vie quotidienne à Harlem dans les années 1940-1950. Les photographies de DeCarava sont lumineuses et vivifiantes, les mots de Hughes sont simples et engageants. La rencontre des deux ressemble à quelque chose comme la grâce.

C’est beau de penser qu’un des vers de jeunesse les plus connus de Hughes était déjà une phrase prononcée par une mère: « My life ain’t been no crystal stairs. » Trois décennies plus tard, la boucle est bouclée, le sol a changé de texture, et on a droit aux mots de l’aînée Sister Mary Bradley, pas prête à mourir du tout, la vie est dure mais elle est si fascinante: « I done got my feet caught in the sweet flypaper of life. »

[mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soooo gorgeous

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have to be honest, although this is a great collaboration between DeCarava and Hughes, I wasn't able to kick away the fact that 'the text of this book was entirely fictional' and that the photos were a selection of DeCarava's photography, taken Not for the purpose of creating this book but rather brought to Hughes to be made into a publishable book. Having this at the back of my head while reading, I had the feeling that the storyline was a bit forced into a whole - this book lacks the level of spontaneous consistency that a novella (made up of words and photographs) has. But I wonder if I would feel differently had I not read the acknowledgement of which this, what is potentially a prejudice, lies. However, the book does a great job portraiting the community the way Sister Bradley sees it. On top of that, it was an overwhelming moment as I reached the last page of the book - 'ever so once in a while, I put on my best clothes. Here I am.' - as our narrator states, looking into the camera lens with the pair of eyes that have seen and loved the scenes and the stories that are presented to the reader.

[Jayna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book of photographs. This book came out in 1955 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 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." And a quote from inside the book, "Me. I always been all tangled up in life--which ain't always so sanitary as we might like it to be." How true!

I was able to have this book borrowed from my library via inter-library loan.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Basically, this is a short story by Langston Hughes, prominent Harlem Renaissance author, illustrated by the photos of Roy DeCarava. 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 could really be enjoyed.

[Shawna Lyda · Rating 4 out of 5]

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. The poetry is easy to read, but it is incredibly engaging and allows an even deeper connection to DeCarava’s images. 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 copy is small, so I really wish I could see DeCarava's images better.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful monochrome 1950s-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.

[Jas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sweet story, and it ties together a stunning set of pictures showing a day in Harlem. A quick read, but would love to flip through again to just look at the pictures!

[Nicole Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE HAPPY BLACK PEOPLE!

[Mike Reiff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The photographs are as transporting now as they must have been revolutionary then - and Hughes’ poetics, while sometimes a bit too tailored to one brief character or another at times - sprawl and leap and spread across the mind, perfectly in communion with the images.

[Jazmyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very quick read. It felt like an adult picture book. I enjoyed the narration of the lady through out the book and seeing her picture at the end.

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photo portrait of life in Harlem in the 1940’s and 50’s brought to life with the pictures of Roy DeCarava and the words of Langston Hughes. The stunning photographs tell a story of life in Harlem
through the eyes of a grandmother who tells the story of her family and life in Harlem through the pictures.

[Karen]

DeCarava was the Cartier-Bresson of Harlem, capturing daily lives on the street of the city in the 1950s. Though taken a generation before the story of Tish and Fonny, these photographs tell the story of a community rooted to the concrete ground. Together with the words of Langston Hughes, DeCarava aimed to illuminate, as a reviewer in The Times put it, “black joy, black love and resistance through art.”

[Theremin Poisoning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Langston Hughes should be a household name everywhere in America, for starters.

[Tony Bey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Images were beautiful and I felt so grateful to see elegant photos of Black folks in the 40s and 50s. Thank you DeCarava for setting out to make sure Blacks look as beautiful in photos as they do in person. Hughes wrote a powerful story to accompany the photos. My first reaction after finishing the book was a blissful smile. I immediately started the book over again.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more than a photo book. Langston Hughes has taken some of Roy DeCarava's photos and written a story about them. It's an illustrated story, in other words, but the photos had existed before the story. It's an interesting take on the photo book and I would reread this in the future.

[Kyle]

This book is a small masterpiece. You can read it in one sitting but come back to it forever; Roy DeCarava's photos are striking and intimate, and Langston Hughes has always been a master of the sentence. That this is out of print is criminal.

[gnarlyhiker · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the documentary Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People by Thomas Allen Harris (highly recommend), the photographers said that this book was their bible and an inspiration, and that DeCarava was their mentor. Hear ye! Here ye!

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful photographs accompanied by a sweet prose-poem text.

[Jabali Sawicki]

Finally found a used copy of this for $2.00 at the Berkeley Flea Market. Absolutely beautiful book! Powerful images and words. Will cherish it forever and come back to it often.

[Jane Somers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was delightful. And sometimes sad. No wonder all of the photographers in Through A Lens Darkly cited it as huge influence. It's out of print and rare, but I was lucky to find it at the library.