Shirtless Boy, New York

c. 1965

Shirtless Boy, New York, c. 1965. Louis H. Draper (American, 1935–2002). Gelatin silver print; image: 29.4 x 21.4 cm (11 9/16 x 8 7/16 in.); paper: 35.2 x 28 cm (13 7/8 x 11 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund 2016.273 Raised in segregated Richmond, Virginia, Louis Draper moved to New York City to study photography in 1957. Shooting mostly in Harlem and around New York, he created reflective and penetrating portraits, compelling street photography, and, later in life, abstractions. Depicting black skin was difficult because all film was balanced for white complexions. Draper often used reflective highlights to give the black face and body dimensionality and texture. A goal for Louis Draper was to show blacks participating in universal human experience.