Roy DeCarava

Roy DeCarava was a photographer who took a lot of black and white images of jazz musicians during the 50s and 60s. This picture was among many taken by Roy DeCarava in 1957. It is of Billie Holiday and Hazel Scott at a party. This is such a unique candid picture of Billie Holiday. It looks like a homey setting that they're in because of the curtains in the background and the low-light setting of the lamp on the piano. It could have been at a house party as opposed to a club type of party. It looks like this could be Billie Holiday and Hazel Scott talking in between a set/songs or talking on break between songs. Or he could be playing and she could be singing. The way the photo was taken keeps the mystery of if this was during Billie Holiday talking or singing hidden, which intrigues people looking at the photograph. To me, I interpret the picture as Billie Holiday and Hazel Scott talking in between songs because of the way they are both sitting, their body language and gestures. Usually in most cases, vocalists stand up while singing, which gives me the indication that she isn't singing at this moment, that and the microphone doesn't look like it is close to her. It looks like it is a few inches in front of her. I also like that even though it is dim lighting, how you can see both of their faces in a way and you can see the music on the piano. I like how the picture also shows the closeness of the two performers through how closely they are sitting to one another, whether that's for musical purposes or not you can tell they have a musical relationship of some sort. I like how even if you don't know when this photograph was taken the details of the picture indicate that it is older, like how the piano keys are all worn, the microphone,  the fashion/dress of Billie Holiday, the lamp  and curtains all give away clues of the time period around when this photograph may have been taken.