1950 was a turning point in the career of Roy De Carava. The painter and screenprinter had turned to photography fulltime in the late 1940s, and in 1950 had his first one-man show in the gallery of artist Mark Perper. Through Perper’s friend Homer Page, De Carava was introduced to Edward Steichen, head of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art, who acquired three of De Carava’s photographs for the institution. Two years later, De Carava became the first African-American to receive a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, which would enable him to pursue a photographic survey of life in Harlem.